Brandon Bussi and Kyle Keyser celebrate Sunday’s win over Hartford. (Photo courtesy of Providence Bruins)

The Providence Bruins wrapped up the regular season by winning two out of three games over the weekend.

They started by beating the Springfield Thunderbirds, 4-2, at home on Friday night. That victory clinched second place in the Atlantic Division and a first-round bye. In Bridgeport on Saturday, the P-Bruins lost, 4-1, to the Islanders. Back home on Friday. Providence scored twice in the third period on the way to a 4-2 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack.

“I’m real proud of the guys. You look back at the year and their growth was exceptional in a lot of our guys. A game like today to end the season, with back to back three in threes, to play that hard at the end says a ton. They’re not easy,” said coach Ryan Mougenel after Sunday’s game.

“It’s a grind as a coach, I can’t imagine it as a player. It says a lot about the group. It says a lot about some of our young kids. It’s tough to fight through. Arguably, our older  guys were some of the best players today. That speaks volumes.”

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— After going 1-3-1-1 in October, Providence finished the regular season with a record of 42-21-6-3. They ended up second in the Atlantic Division, earning a bye in the opening round of the playoffs. They were fourth in the AHL with 93 points and fourth in points percentage at .646.

— Georgii Merkulov scored two goals and an assist on Friday and two goals on Sunday. He finished the regular season with 30-35-65 in 67 games, a 10-point improvement over last season. He was fifth in the AHL in points. Only five players scored more goals. He is the first P-Bruin to hit the 30-goal mark since Frank Vatrano did it in 2015-16.

— Jayson Megna had a goal and an assist on Friday and three assists on Sunday. With 15 points in his last 10 games, he finished second on the team with 19-37-56 in 69 games, his best offensive season in the AHL. He was voted team MVP by his teammates.

— Anthony Richard recorded three assists on Friday and one on Sunday. He finished third on the team with 25-30-55 in 59 games.

— Patrick Brown scored a goal on Friday and recorded assists on Saturday and on the game-winning goal on Sunday. He has points in five straight games.

— With Providence nursing a one-goal lead on Sunday, Kyle Keyser made a terrific kick save on Alex Belzile with 3:28 left. Keyser stopped all nine shots he faced after taking over in net for the third period.

— Alec Regula’s plus-36 was the best in the AHL. He was presented with the Best Defenseman Award on Sunday. Dan Renouf, Regula’s partner, was second in the league with plus 34.

— In his first game on a tryout contract, former Boston University center Nick Zabaneh scored the game-winning goal with 8:49 left in Sunday’s game.

— Riley Duran potted the GWG on a rebound Friday night against Springfield after Patrick Brown won an offensive zone faceoff and Dan Renouf fired a shot from the point.

— Trevor Kuntar snapped a streak of 16 straight games without a goal when he scored on Sunday. And it was a beauty, as he beat a Hartford defenseman and tucked the puck into the net for his 10^th goal of the year.

— Providence went 22-9-2-1 against the other New England teams. They were 9-3 vs. Bridgeport; 8-3-1-0 with Springfield; and 5-3-1-1 against Hartford.

— The P-Bruins led the AHL with 15 shorthanded goals.

— Attendance on Sunday was 9,643. Providence finished sixth in the AHL with an average crowd of 7,713. That’s 68.42 percent of capacity.

BAD

— The power play is in a 0 for 16 slump.

— Hard to believe Hartford’s Nic Petan wasn’t called for a penalty after he hacked Anthony Richard’s arm as Richard broke in on the Hartford net in the third period. Richard easily could have been injured on the play and it’s no surprise that he went after Petan seconds later and both players drew roughing penalties.

— John Farinacci has gone 20 games without a goal.

— The P-Bruins finished 28^th in the league on the power play at home at 15.1 percent.

— They were 30^th in the AHL on the penalty kill on the road at 75.9 percent. Bridgeport scored two power-play goals on three opportunities on Saturday.

UGLY

— Injured: Alec Regula, Fabian Lysell, Joey Abate

The Providence Bruins won two of their three games over the weekend. One of the wins came in overtime and the other in a shootout, providing four important points as the P-Bruins close in on clinching second place in the Atlantic Division and a first-round bye.

They started with a 5-4 victory over the Utica Comets at home on Friday. Providence led, 4-1, with 10 minutes left in the third period, but needed a Patrick Brown score in OT to escape with the win.

At home again on Saturday against Utica, the P-Bruins wrested a 3-2 win away from the Comets in a shootout as Jayson Megna scored the decisive goal and Mike DiPietro shut the door in net.

On the road on Sunday, Providence jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, but lost to the Springfield Thunderbirds, 4-2.

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— Providence is 40-20-6-3 for 89 points. With three games left in the regular season, they need one point to wrap up second-place in the Atlantic Division.

— With Saturday’s win, the P-Bruins reached 40 wins for the eighth time in the last 12 seasons.

— Patrick Brown continues to play terrific hockey.

His OT goal clinched the win on Friday. On Saturday, he made an outstanding play that culminated in an Oskar Steen shorthanded goal 52 seconds into the second period. Brown outskated and outworked a Utica player all the way up the ice, then got off a shot on net. Steen was there to bury the rebound.

On Sunday he gave the P-Bruins a 1-0 lead 46 seconds into the game and recorded a game-high six shots.

— Rookie Riley Duran was outstanding in Friday’s game. He scored his first goal as a pro in the first period and had the primary assist on two other goals.

— Mike DiPietro stopped 26 of 28 shots, plus all three in the shootout, in Saturday’s win.

— Oskar Steen scored twice on Friday and once on Saturday. He has six goals in his last six games.

— Providence leads the AHL with 15 shorthanded goals.

— Mason Lohrei had two assists and was plus-four on Friday night.

— Good work on the forecheck by Joey Abate paved the way for Georgii Merkulov’s 26th goal of the season on Saturday.

— Jaxon Nelson scored his first goal as a pro on Sunday and Jimmy Lambert scored his first goal as a Providence Bruin on Friday.

BAD

— Providence squandered a 4-1 lead in the third period on Friday night and a 2-0 lead nearly halfway through the game on Sunday.

— Not a great weekend for special teams. Providence went 0 for 11 on the power play and allowed four goals in 11 times shorthanded.

UGLY

— Injured: Alec Regula, Fabian Lysell

After taking a pass from Georgii Merkulov (in the background), Jayson Megna tucks the puck past Rochester goalie Devon Levi for Providence’s second goal on Saturday night. (Photo courtesy of Providence Bruins)

The results were mixed for the injury depleted Providence Bruins this weekend. They didn’t win either of their games, but they did earn two points in a pair of overtime losses.

Every team goes through injuries and with regulars Alec Regula, Fabian Lysell and Reilly Walsh out, Providence’s lineup is much thinner than it was a couple of weeks ago.

There’s no sugarcoating Friday night’s result. The P-Bruins did not play well in a 3-2 OT loss at Lehigh Valley. They were much better at home on Saturday, but fell to the Rochester Americans in overtime, 3-2.

“It was a great response. We deserved a better fate, for sure. (Devon Levi) was outstanding – he made some unbelievable saves. The first period, early on, we should have been up by four,” said coach Ryan Mougenel after Saturday’s game.

“Did we outplay them? For sure. Did we manage the game better? I don’t think so. That’s something that needs to be addressed. When you’re holding onto a lead and you have the ability to get inside and win a puck – these are some of the things we’re looking for in our players. Especially, because we’re a bit shorthanded right now. We need guys that don’t normally do stuff like that, to do that.

“The game-tying goal, it’s not that it’s a mistake. It’s a competitive lapse. Those are tough, but lesson learned. Our back end had some youth to it and I think they did a real good job of responding the right way.”

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— With six games left in the regular season, Providence is 38-19-6-3 and has 85 points. They are in second place in the Atlantic Division, four points ahead of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins  and Charlotte Checkers. The P-Bruins have a game in hand on both teams and remain in good position to earn a bye in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs if they take care of business.

— Jayson Megna is on fire with 4-6-10 in his last five games. He earned the primary assist on Ian Mitchell’s power play goal on Saturday and then finished off a pretty passing play for a goal in the second period. It was a well-executed setup as Anthony Richard hit Georgii Merkulov with a pass and Merkulov put the puck right on Megna’s tape at the edge of the blue paint for the goal. Megna has 18-33-51 in 64 games.

— Anthony Richard had a goal on Friday and two helpers on Saturday. He has 5-4-9 in his last six games and 25-26-51 in 54 games for the season.

— Oskar Steen came back from a facial injury to score a goal on Friday. He has three goals in his last three games.

— Ian Mitchell made a nice pass to Anthony Richard for a power play goal on Friday and scored a power play goal himself on Saturday.

— The power play went 1 for 1 on Friday and 1 for 3 on Saturday.

— Saturday’s home game drew a crowd of 10,006.

BAD

— The team arrived home from Pennsylvania at 3 a.m. on Saturday, then 16 hours later had to face a Rochester team that had Friday night off.

— The P-Bruins frittered away a 2-0 first period lead against the Phantoms.

— They were outshot, 33-15, against Lehigh Valley.

— Three of Providence’s six defensemen on Saturday were rookies. One of them was playing college hockey a couple of weeks ago and one has spent the season in the ECHL. No disrespect to anyone, but it’s very hard to win in the AHL with inexperienced D.

— John Farinacci’s gone 13 games without a goal. Trevor Kuntar doesn’t have a point in his last 11 games.

UGLY

— Injured: Alec Regula, Fabian Lysell, Reilly Walsh

Any way you slice it, two wins in three road games is a good week.

That’s what the Providence Bruins did last week, with the first victory coming against the AHL’s best-by-a-mile team, the Hershey Bears.

Missing two important players in Alec Regula and Fabian Lysell, the P-Bruins rolled into Hershey last Tuesday night and beat the 12-time Calder Cup champions, 4-1, sending a crowd of 10,000 home disappointed.

The road show moved on to Utica on Friday night and Providence beat the Comets, 7-4.

On Saturday night, the P-Bruins looked like they didn’t have a lot left in the tank as they lost, 4-0, to the Syracuse Crunch, who are in first place in the North Division.

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— With Friday’s win, the P-Bruins clinched a spot in the Calder Cup playoffs. This will be their 10^th straight trip to the playoffs. They’ve missed the postseason only five times since the team took the ice in 1992-93.

— As of Monday, Providence was in second place in the Atlantic Division with a 38-19-4-3 record and 83 points. With eight games left in the regular season, they are six points ahead of the third-place Charlotte Checkers, who have seven games left. Providence remains in the driver’s seat to earn a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

— Jayson Megna was a standout in Hershey and Utica. Against the Bears he took a crosscheck in the back from Dylan McIlrath to score Providence’s first goal and added a pair of assists.

He was a factor at both ends of the ice in Utica, with 2-2-4, including a shorthanded goal. He made a fantastic play on the shorty, receiving a pass in his skates, kicking it up to his stick, then going forehand-backhand for the finish, all while skating at high speed.

Later in the game, after coming back to the defensive zone to break up two Utica rushes, he sent Marc McLaughlin in for a breakaway goal.

— Anthony Richard had a goal in Hershey and 2-2-4 in Utica.

— It looked like 23-goal scorer Graeme Clarke was going to give Utica the lead in the opening minutes on Friday, but Brandon Bussi of the P-Bruins made another one of those fabulous saves where he goes side to side and denies what looks like a sure goal.

— The P-Bruins were sour over the questionable and unpenalized hit by Syracuse’s Daniel Walcott that injured Alec Regula on March 24, so it was no surprise that Dan Renouf, Regula’s defense partner, went right at Walcott and dropped the gloves in the opening minutes on Saturday.

— Oskar Steen scored twice against Utica. He has five goals in his last eight games.

— In addition to his usual strong defensive work, Mike Callahan skated in from the point, took a nice pass from Georgii Merkulov, and scored the goal that turned out to be the game-winner against Hershey.

— Marc McLaughlin scored goals against the Bears and the Comets.

— The P-Bruins had one of their best penalty kills of the season in the third period in Hershey. Down two players for a full two minutes, Brandon Bussi, Mike Callahan, Dan Renouf, Patrick Brown, Reilly Walsh, Jayson Megna and Ian Mitchell held the fort.

— Mike DiPietro made 25 saves and allowed no goals in the second period on Saturday.

— Hershey’s Clay Stevenson has the AHL’s best save percentage, but the P-Bruins lit him up for three goals on four shots on the second period.

— The P-Bruins got some very good breaks from the referees in Hershey. They had eight power plays to only four for the Bears.

BAD

— Oskar Steen was poked in the face by the stick of Utica goalie Nico Daws in the third period on Friday. Incredibly, there was no call on the play. As Steen writhed in pain on the ice, the Comets took the puck down to the other end and scored.

— Providence was outshot, 25-6, in the second period on Saturday night. The total of 38 shots against Mike DiPietro were the most he’s faced this season.

— Sitting on a 5-1 lead in the third period, Providence allowed three goals in under six minutes against the Comets before Jayson Megna stopped the bleeding with an empty-net goal.

— Tough defensive zone turnover by Brett Harrison led to Utica’s first goal on Friday.

UGLY

— Injured: Fabian Lysell, Alec Regula, Oskar Steen