PROVIDENCE — It’s a clean sheet for the Providence Bruins until just after 7 tonight when the puck drops for the first game of the season vs. Springfield.

“As long as we play hard, that’s all I really care about. We’re going to make mistakes. It’s really just a baseline to get going, so we can figure out where we’re at with everything,” said coach Jay Leach. “Everybody’s excited. I’m ready to go. It’s been a long training camp.”

This will be the 26th season for the P-Bruins. Their first home game was on Oct. 16, 1992, when they crushed Hershey, 9-3, before a roaring sellout throng of 11,909.

Tim Sweeney and Jozef Stumpel had 2-2-4 and Jim Vesey had 2-1-3 for the P-Bruins, who went 4-for-8 on the power play.

Chris Winnes went forehand-backhand on a penalty shot to beat the Bears’ Scott LeGrand, who left Boston College early to sign with Philadelphia.

There was a fight between Chris Jensen of Hershey and Denis Chervyakov.

Mike Bales made 45 saves for the P-Bruins.

Earlier that week, team captain Peter Laviolette had predicted a 9-2 victory. So he only missed by a goal.

We can only hope for that much entertainment tonight.

I’ll have pregame, in-game and postgame tweets from the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.

The lines:

Heinen-Szwarz-Fitzgerald

Agostino-JFK-Cehlarik

Defense:

Lauzon-Cross

O’Gara-Zboril

Breen-Clifton

Goal

McIntyre starts, with Vladar as the backup

Scratches: Johansson, Hickman, Hargrove, Payerl, Acolatse, Doherty (injured)