
The Providence Bruins have hit the halfway point of the season – they’ve played 36 games and they have 36 left.
Finishing a stretch of six straight games on the road, the P-Bruins split two games over the weekend. They dropped a 5-1 decision at Lehigh Valley on Friday, then rebounded with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory in overtime against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Saturday.
The win pulled Providence out of fifth place and into fourth place in the tight Atlantic Division race.
Here’s the good, bad and ugly.
GOOD
— Back from Boston, Steven Fogarty made a tremendous play in overtime to find Jesper Froden for a backdoor goal that gave the P-Bruins a much-needed win on Saturday.
— Jesper Froden scored Providence’s only goal on Friday, then buried the OT tally on Saturday. He has goals in three straight games.
— Jeremy Swayman made back-to-back game-saving pad stops with a minute left in overtime just before Jesper Froden’s OT tally on Saturday. Swayman was solid as a rock all night, turning back 26 of 27 shots.
— Jack Ahcan broke up a three-on-one in overtime on Saturday.
— Chris Wagner made a good play to set up Zach Senyshyn’s power play goal that tied Saturday’s game. Senyshyn took over the team lead with 12 goals. He earned an assist on the overtime goal, but not a plus as he passed the puck to Steven Fogarty and then went to the bench a few seconds before Froden scored.
— Providence will play 21 of its last 36 games at The Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
— They have anywhere from four to six games in hand on the teams above them and behind them in the Atlantic Division.
BAD
— The loss on Friday extended Providence’s winless streak to four – two regulation losses and two shootout losses.
— The P-Bruins gave up two goals in 37 seconds in the first period against the Phantoms.
— Providence was outshot, 15-6, in the second period against the Penguins.
UGLY
— Injured: Jakub Lauko, John Moore, Nick Wolff