Good, bad & ugly from Providence Bruins weekend

Set up by Fabian Lysell, Providence’s Vinni Lettieri rifles the puck past Hartford’s Louis Domingue in overtime on Sunday. (Photo courtesy of Providence Bruins)

It was another productive weekend for the Providence Bruins as they earned four of six points by winning two of their three games.

“In a three in three, we’ll take that,” said coach Ryan Mougenel.

They opened the weekend with a well-earned 3-2 victory against the Utica Comets at home on Friday. In Hartford on Saturday, the P-Bruins were outplayed in a 3-1 loss to the Wolf Pack. Back home on Sunday, the P-Bruins edged Hartford, 3-2, in overtime.

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— Fabian Lysell made a brilliant one-on-one play to set up Vinni Lettieri’s goal 26 seconds into overtime on Sunday. He danced Hartford’s Bobby Trivigno before sliding a pass to Lettieri for a one timer that beat Louis Domingue in the Wolf Pack net. It’s a shot that Lettieri stays on the ice to practice long after other players have left.

— With 37 games played and 35 to go, Providence finished the weekend in second place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 22-8-5-2. They have 51 points and a points percentage of .689. Only Hershey (54) and Coachella Valley (52) have more points.

— Making his first start since injuring his knee on Nov. 5, Kyle Keyser stopped 29 shots and earned the win on Sunday. “He deserved that. It’s not easy coming back from being out three months,” said Mougenel. Keyser is 5-0-1 with a .931 save percentage and 1.89 goals-against average.

— Marc McLaughlin had a good weekend. He had 1-1-2 on Friday and a goal on Sunday and was plus-two in each game.

— Justin Brazeau is hot. He scored a goal on Friday and a goal and an assist on Sunday. He has 5-5-10 in his last eight games.

— Jack Ahcan made a perfect pass to Justin Brazeau on the game-winner on Friday, then got the puck to Lysell in overtime on Sunday.

— Keith Kinkaid stopped 32 of 34 shots in Hartford on Saturday. The pad stop he made on Matt Robertson two minutes into the third period was one of his best of the season.

— Hartford’s Matt Rempe is 6-foot-7. Providence’s Jack Ahcan is 5-foot-8. In the second period on Saturday night, the smaller guy absolutely steamrolled the bigger guy with a clean hit.

— While the Wolf Pack crowed about filling the bottom tier of their rink with 6,189 fans on Saturday, the P-Bruins drew 10,169 on Sunday, the biggest home crowd of the season. Providence is fourth in the AHL with an average attendance of 7,265.

— Providence caught a couple of breaks against Utica on Friday. First, an apparent goal by the Comets at the end of the second period was washed out. It looked like the puck crossed the goal line before time ran out, but the referees looked at the replay and ruled that that it had not. Then, after killing a five on three, Marc McLaughlin’s dump-in took a crazy bounce past Utica goalie Nico Daws for a lucky goal 2:27 into the third period.

BAD

— Linesmen Dmitri Antipin and Stephen Drain should have stepped in sooner when Matt Rempe of Hartford pounded J.D. Greenway in a one-sided fight in the second period on Sunday.

— Tough break for Georgii Merkulov in the third period on Sunday. With Providence up, 2-1, he lost an edge and fell down after carrying the puck into the offensive zone. Hartford’s Zac Jones collected the puck and passed it up to Tanner Fritz, who went in alone and scored to tie the game.

UGLY

— Injured: Eduards Tralmaks, Matt Filipe

— Providence is in a 0 for 15 stretch on the power play. The PP is 31st in the league at 13.8 percent.

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