Good, bad & ugly from Providence Bruins week

Rookie Mason Lohrei recorded his first point as a pro with an assist on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Providence Bruins)

At home for three straight games, the Providence Bruins earned four of a possible six points last week.

They snapped a two-game losing streak with a solid 3-1 win over the Hershey Bears on Wednesday. They ground out a 3-1 win against the last-place Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday. Then they lost to the red-hot Hartford Wolf Pack, 5-3, on Saturday.

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— The P-Bruins head into the final week of the season in second place in the Atlantic Division with 94 points. They trail first-place Hershey by a point. They have a bye for the first-round of the playoffs.

— Providence went 5-1 against Hershey this season.

— Vinni Lettieri returned from an ankle injury against Hershey and scored the winning goal and added an assist. He scored an empty net goal to clinch the win against WBS. He’s averaging a point per game with 21-24-45 in 45 games.

— Shane Bowers scored twice against Hershey and again against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. His first tally against Hershey snapped a 38-game goal-less streak.

— Connor Carrick made a terrific pass to Vinni Lettieri on the winning goal on Friday. Carrick was plus-2 on both Wednesday and Friday.

— Brandon Bussi delivered yet another fine performance on Friday, stopping 36 of 37 shots in the win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. His .925 save percentage is second in the AHL.

— Kyle Keyser played well against Hershey, stopping 28 of 29 shots. He was very strong in the third period when the P-Bruins were outshot, 14-4.

— Luke Toporowski had a good weekend. On Friday he made a play to get the puck to the net and it was tipped in by Eduards Tralmaks, giving Providence the lead with 18 seconds left in the second period. On Saturday he smoked a wrist shot past Dylan Garand for his 14th goal of the season. Toporowski would probably be closing in on 20 goals if he hadn’t missed a couple of months with a knee injury.

— On his 30th birthday on Saturday, Josiah Didier scored two goals. He hadn’t scored since Dec. 4. It was the first multi-goal game of his pro career.

— Mason Lohrei recorded his first point as a pro, earning the second assist on Josiah Didier’s first goal on Saturday.

— Eduards Tralmaks scored a goal on Friday and assisted on one on Saturday.

BAD

— The power play went 0 for 8 in the three games. It is 1 for its last 21 and is last in the AHL at home at 14.3 percent.

— Georgii Merkulov has come a long way with his defensive zone play this season, but he was minus-3 on Saturday.

— Three of Hartford’s first 13 shots went in on Saturday.

UGLY

— The AHLTV broadcast from the Amica Mutual Pavilion on Saturday night was unwatchable at times. I don’t see camera work that bad anywhere else in the Atlantic Division.

— Injured: Nick Wolff, Joey Abate, Trevor Kuntar

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