Good, bad & ugly from Providence Bruins week

Mason Lohrei and fans celebrate his overtime goal against Bridgeport on Sunday afternoon. (Photo courtesy of Providence Bruins)

The Providence Bruins continued their good play over the last week as they won two out of three games and pocketed four of six points.

At Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Wednesday night, the P-Bruins erased a one-goal deficit and beat the Penguins, 3-2. Moving on to Syracuse on Friday, Providence lost, 4-2, to the Crunch. Returning home Sunday against Bridgeport, the P-Bruins fell behind early but rallied for a 2-1 overtime win against the Islanders.

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— As of Sunday night, Providence was in second place in the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference with a record of 23-13-3-2, good for 51 points. Since losing in Toronto on Dec. 20, they are 10-2-1 for 21 of a possible 26 points.

— Mason Lohrei and Johnny Beecher were demoted from Boston on Saturday and, to their credit, both came to play on Sunday. Beecher scored in the first period and Lohrei buried the winner in overtime in a 2-1 victory.

— Fabian Lysell’s best assets were on display as he scored the game-winner against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Lysell used his speed to find open ice, took a pass from Anthony Richard and rifled a short-side wrist shot past goalie Magnus Hellberg.

— Alec Regula continues to play strong defense and lead the AHL with plus-26. Halfway through the Syracuse game he bailed out partner Frederic Brunet, who turned the puck over. Regula got his stick on a shot by a Crunch forward, deflected it out of play and negated a Grade A scoring chance.

— Justin Brazeau did the heavy lifting on Georgii Merkulov’s goal in Syracuse, protecting the puck and muscling it out to Merkulov in prime scoring position. After scoring 16 goals in 67 games last season, Brazeau is up to 13 goals in 41 games so far this year.

— Brandon Bussi has won his last five starts. He gave up a goal on Bridgeport’s second shot early in the first period, then stopped the last 24 in Sunday’s win. He kicked out 30 of 32 shots in the win on Wednesday.

— Brett Harrison made a nice play against the Penguins. He took advantage of a turnover, took the puck up ice and protected it until Georgii Merkulov swooped in and scored.

— Attendance on Sunday was 8,358. It was the third straight 8,000-plus crowd at the Amica Mutual Pavilion.

BAD

— On both the tying and winning goal for Syracuse on Friday, Mikey DiPietro was beaten high on the glove side.

— The P-Bruins were undermanned against the Crunch as Jayson Megna, Dan Renouf and Anthony Richard were unavailable.

— Gabriel Fortier of the Crunch is a first-rate flopper. He drew two penalties on Friday night.

— In Syracuse, Providence entered the final period with a one-goal lead but couldn’t hold it. They gave up the tying goal just 29 seconds into the third.

UGLY

— Providence is 30th in the AHL on the power play at home at 12.2 percent.

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