Good, bad & ugly from Providence Bruins weekend

Honestly, the Providence Bruins were fortunate to come away from the weekend with two out of four points.

They were outplayed on Friday but stole a 4-3 shootout win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms thanks to goalie Brandon Bussi.

On Saturday, the P-Bruins grabbed an early 2-0 lead but then gave up five straight goals (the last one was an empty-netter) in a 5-2 loss to the Phantoms.

“There were a lot of passengers (on Saturday). Our team is not built to have passengers. We’ve done a great job this year of building a team game. I didn’t like some of the individual play. I didn’t like some of the guys’ juice, to be honest with you,” said coach Ryan Moungenel after Saturday’s game.

“We’re looking for guys that are going to play in the playoffs and battle in the playoffs. From an organizational standpoint, it needs to be understood that some of them that we count on can’t play like that. It’s got to get better and it’s going to be addressed this week.”

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— The P-Bruins finished the weekend with a solid hold on second place in the Atlantic Division with a 36-18-3-2 record and 77 points. They are eight points ahead of third-place Wilkes-Barre/Scranton with 13 games to go.

— Brandon Bussi stopped 39 shots plus three more in the shootout on Friday. The save he made on Adam Brooks early in the third period might have been his best of the season. He’s now 3-0 against Lehigh Valley.

— Providence’s second goal on Friday – Fabian Lysell to Jayson Megna to Georgii Merkulov for a tap-in off the rush – was a thing of beauty.

— Vincent Arseneau was a presence, to say the least, on Saturday night. He fought Phantoms’ heavyweight Garrett Wilson after a big (and somehow unpenalized) hit on Trevor Kuntar in the first period. When a melee broke out in the third period, Arseneau buckled 6-foot-4 Will Zmolek with an explosive left.

— Reilly Walsh scored twice and was plus-three on Friday night.

— Georgii Merkulov had a goal and an assist both nights, plus the only shootout goal on Friday. After scoring 24 goals and 55 points in 67 games as a rookie, Merkulov has 25 goals and 55 points in 54 games this year. He is now fourth in the AHL in points.

— Fabian Lysell had two assists on both Friday and Saturday. He had 14-23-37 in 54 games as a rookie. He is up to 15-34-49 in 55 games this year.

— Providence is third in the AHL with 201 goals for.

BAD

— The P-Bruins simply had no answer for Lehigh Valley’s line of Olle Lycksell (0-4), Tanner Laczynski (3-1) and Adam Brooks (2-3) on Saturday.

— Providence was outshot 42-21, including 17-4 in the third period, on Friday, and 39-31 on Saturday.

— Anthony Richard was minus-four on Saturday. Georgii Merkulov and Ian Mitchell were minus-three.

— The refereeing duo of Justin Kea and Samuel Heidemann worked both games, with predictable results. In addition to questionable penalties and missed calls, they disallowed a goal that should have counted and allowed a goal that shouldn’t have counted on Friday night. For good measure, they slapped a game misconduct for abuse of officials on Lehigh’s Adam Ginning at the final horn on Saturday.

UGLY

— Cooper Marody’s two-handed hack caught Providence’s Joey Abate in the face with 13:10 left on Friday. No call.

— Injured: Alec Regula

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