Georgii Merkulov beats Lehigh Valley goalie Parker Gahagen for the winning goal in overtime on Saturday night. (Photo courtesy of Providence Bruins)

The first six weeks of the season have been a slog at times for the Providence Bruins, but things are looking up.

The P-Bruins won both of their games over the weekend, starting with a thorough start-to-finish win at home over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, 3-0, on Friday night. At the AMP again on Saturday, Providence beat the Phantoms, 2-1, in overtime.

“Really, if you look at our last seven games, I think they’ve been a step in the right direction, building it the right way,” coach Ryan Mougenel said late Saturday.

“The D did a real good job. (Mike) Callahan and (Billy) Sweezey have been good lieutenants back there, showing the young kids how we need to play. (Ian) Mitchell was excellent (Saturday) and our goalies made the saves that they need to make. It’s going in the right direction. We’re building our team game.”

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— A week ago, the P-Bruins were in sixth place in the Atlantic Division as of Sunday night. This week they are fourth with a record of 8-7-2. They are one point behind the second-place Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

— Providence’s goaltending was outstanding all weekend and team defense was much improved. On Friday, Brandon Bussi played his best game of the season in posting a 30-save shutout. He made several 10-bell saves in the third period. On Saturday, Mike DiPietro stopped 22 of 23 shots.

— Georgii Merkulov didn’t sulk after being sent down from Boston. He was credited with a primary assist on Friday and won Saturday’s game with a nifty breakaway goal in overtime. Second on the team in points with 3-10-13 in 14 games, he is riding a seven-game point streak.

— Vinni Lettieri made a beautiful play to set up Riley Tufte’s second period goal on Saturday. Lettieri leads the team with 8-6-14 in 17 games.

— Fabian Lysell snapped a nine-game stretch without a goal when he scored his second goal of the year in the first period on Friday.

— John Farinacci made a pretty pass to set up Frederic Brunet’s goal on Friday.

— Matt Poitras recorded two assists in Friday’s game.

— Providence’s next five games are against teams that are below them in the standings: Utica (3), Springfield and Bridgeport.

BAD

— Trevor Kuntar (14 games) and Brett Harrison (13 games) are both still looking for their first goals of the season.

— The P-Bruins are averaging 15.06 penalty minutes per game, eighth most in the AHL.

— On the road, Providence’s penalty kill is 27^th in the league.          

— They are 0-4-1-0 when trailing after two periods and 0-4-0-0 when outshot.

UGLY

— Injured: Alec Regula