Things were just a little bit off for the Austin Bruins in a 6-3 loss to Owatonna in Riverside Arena Friday.

The game was tied at three with four minutes left, but the Bruins (3-8 overall) couldn’t quite kill an Express power play as John Haeg drilled a slap shot with 3:24 left in the game and three seconds left in the power play to put his team up for good.

The Bruins also missed on some close scoring chances as Jack Walsh was denied on a point blank one-timer in the second period and Walsh was denied again on a point blank look that would’ve tied the game with 2:45 left in the contest.

Austin scored twice in the third period, but both goals came on long slap shots by Matt Pilot and Trevor Waldoch.

“We were taking what they were giving us and it’s unfortunate the puck just didn’t bounce our way tonight,” said Pilot, a defenseman from Inver Grove Heights, who also had an assist Friday. “We were frustrated, but we kept coming at them and trying to win the game.”

The Bruins opened the game by scoring first when James Dickinson knocked in a crossing pass from Walsh in the first period.

Although the Bruins out-shot the Express (8-6 overall) 17-11 in the first, they still trailed 2-1 as Owatonna scored two goals in a one-minute span to close the period.

Austin head coach Chris Tok said his team needs to learn to recover from letdowns, like Owatonna’s first goal which came off a scrum near the net.

“It takes us awhile to regroup after bad things happen to us,” he said. “A lot of these kids aren’t used to getting slapped in the face, they’re always the best players and good things happen. Now things aren’t and they’ve got to find a way to compete when things don’t go their way.”

The Bruins out-shot Owatonna 37-28 on the night and they controlled the puck for long spurts. Owatonna put the contest away with two empty net goals with under a minute left.

“We played one of our more complete games of the year,” Tok said. “The young guys are still trying to figure out how to finish it. We had some good intensity in the third period, but we’ve got to do that for the whole game.”

Austin goalie Alex Cantrell stopped 24 of the 28 shots he saw.

SCORING SUMMARY

Owatonna2 0 4 — 6

Austin        1 0 2 — 3

First period

(A) James Dickinson (Jack Walsh) 12:49

(O) John Haeg (Chris Bournazos, Lawrence Cornellier) 16:31

(O) Ben Persian (Nick Widing, Andy Singerhouse) 17:21

Second period

No scoring

Third period

(A) Matt Pilot (Sean Murphy, Alex Tesenky) 2:54

(O) Persian (Widing)

(A) Trevor Waldoch (Pilot, Mike Fazio) 11:34

(O) Haeg (powerplay) (Jordan Kresbach) 16:37

(O) Cornellier (empty net) (Marian Fiala) 19:09

(O) TJ Christensen (empty net) (Persian, Kreschbach)

Shots: Austin — 37; Owatonna — 30

Power plays: Austin — 0-for-3; Owatonna — 1-for-4