Mike DiPietro congratulates Brandon Bussi on his shutout on Sunday. (Photo courtesy of Providence Bruins)

The Providence Bruins were without some of their top players as Vinni Lettieri, Mike Callahan and Matt Poitras were recalled by Boston, but you wouldn’t know it from the results on the ice.

The P-Bruins swept all three of their games last week and by late Sunday they held down second place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 21-13-3-1 and 46 points.

Their first win was a gritty 3-2 shootout decision on the road against the Syracuse Crunch on Wednesday. Providence returned home for the weekend and beat the Crunch, 5-0, on Saturday and then blanked the Springfield Thunderbirds, 4-0, on Sunday.

“It shows our leadership, for sure. As a group sometimes you can wonder about what’s not in your lineup, but the guys did a great job celebrating what we had in the lineup. I can’t say enough about our goaltending and our back end. They really stepped up,” said coach Ryan Mougenel after Sunday’s game.

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— The goaltending was superb in all three wins. On Wednesday, Michael DiPietro kicked out 37 of 39 shots and four out of five in the shootout. He followed that up with a 26-save shutout on Saturday. DiPietro’s 1.95 goals-against average is second in the AHL.

Brandon Bussi stopped all 27 shots on Sunday, including a couple of 10-bell saves.

— Tyler Pitlick had a terrific week. He tied Wednesday’s game with a third-period goal and scored in the shootout, too. After posting an assist on Saturday, he had 2-1-3 on Sunday. With 11 goals on 42 shots, his shooting percentage is 26.2.

— The power play went 1 for 2 on Saturday and 1 for 3 on Sunday. The PP is 13^th in the league at 18 percent.

“One unit has a lot of poise and makes a lot of positive plays. Obviously, (Georgii Merkulov) makes it go. I thought (Ian Mitchell) did a real good job on it (Sunday), had a good focus and was clean and efficient. There was a lot of structure. The one thing (assistant coach) Matty Thomas does is explains the ‘why’ all the time. That’s had a big effect on our power play,” said Mougenel.

— Merkulov has points in five straight games with 2-4-6.

— Riley Tufte scored the deciding goal in the shootout win in Syracuse.

— Frederic Brunet made a slick pass to set up Pitlick’s first goal on Sunday. He played a strong two-way game and was plus-3.

— Max Jones scored twice in Saturday’s game.

— John Farinacci scored a goal on Saturday and made a pretty pass to set up Brett Harrison’s score on Sunday. Farinacci has 2-8-10 in his last 9 games.

— Trevor Kuntar snapped a streak of 12 games without a goal with his tally on Saturday.

BAD

— In Syracuse, Fabian Lysell had chance after chance but had zero puck luck and went home without a goal.

— Jeffrey Viel continues to lead the AHL in minor penalties with 29.

— Syracuse and Springfield ended up with twice as many power plays – 10 – to only 5 for the P-Bruins on Saturday and Sunday.

UGLY

— Sick: Fabian Lysell