Joey Abate of Providence and Syracuse’s Matteo Pietroniro engaged in a spirited bout in the first period. (Photo courtesy of Providence Bruins)

In their final game before Christmas – and their only game of the week – the Providence Bruins recorded one of their best wins of the season with a 3-1 decision over a big, physical Syracuse Crunch team at home on Saturday night.

The P-Bruins are 20-5-1-0. With 41 points, they are three behind first-place Wilkes-Barre/Scranton but have played four fewer games

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— Providence’s points percentage is second in the AHL at .788.

— Georgii Merkulov scored all three Providence goals on Saturday night.

He is nine points away from tying  Andy Hilbert, Providence’s all-time leading scorer. Hilbert had 101-109-210 in 234 games. Merkulov has 81-120-201 in 225 games.

— Merkulov, Billy Sweezey, Patrick Brown and Riley Tufte were all plus-three and Christian Wolanin was plus-two on Saturday.

Brown’s plus-19 leads the team and is tied for second in the league. Sweezey is plus-14 and Tufte is plus-13. Wolanin is plus-seven in only 11 games.

— Simon Zajicek had an excellent game, stopping 23 of 24 shots. He also recorded his first assists of the season, on Merkulov’s third goal.

— The P-Bruins have four players in double figures for goals. Merkulov and Fabian Lysell have 11. Riley Tufte and Patrick Brown have 10.

— Providence outshot the Crunch in the third period, 14-6, while protecting their one-goal lead.

— Neither team had a power play on Saturday night. To their credit, referees Samuel Heidemann and Austin Rook let the boys play.

— Dans Locmelis leads AHL rookies with two shorthanded goals.

— Providence is 17-0 when scoring first and 16-0 when leading after two periods.

— Syracuse was playing its third game in four nights, all on the road, on Saturday. Meanwhile, the P-Bruins had been off for a week.

— Joey Abate had a spirited bout against Matteo Pietroniro in the first period.

BAD

— The P-Bruins are in a stretch in the schedule where they play only three games in 18 days. What fun is that?

UGLY

— Injured: Michael DiPietro, Fabian Lysell (sick), Max Wanner