John Farinacci rifles the puck past Cleveland goalie Zach Sawchenko in the first period. (Photo courtesy of Providence Bruins)

The Providence Bruins won two out of three last week and finished the first half of the season in first place in the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference.

They started the week with a 4-1 loss at home to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. On Saturday, they blanked the Cleveland Monsters, 5-0, then beat Cleveland again, 6-2, on Sunday.

Through 36 games, Providence is 27-8-1-0 for 55 points and a .764 points percentage. They are two points up on Wilkes-Barre/Scranton with three games in hand in the Atlantic Division.

“There was a lot of growth. It’s a team that enjoys each other, cares for each other, and it’s a little bit indicative of how they play. They do a lot of things that translate to wins, and it’s fun to be around,” coach Ryan Mougenel said, summing up the first half.

“Coming out of our D zone is always going to be a little bit of an adjustment for us as a coaching staff. We’re still finding some of those intrinsic little details. It’s a new D zone system for us so we’re working out the tweaks, learning how to teach it properly, a little simpler.

“For the players, it’s just kind of staying healthy and keeping the focus on what wins and what loses. That’s a big part of it. There were things tonight, when we get away from how we need to play, it doesn’t translate well for us.

“We’ve got good legs and we like our speed. We want to play a north, fast game. We want to get to the walls. We want to complete a lot of plays. For the most part we did that tonight,” Mougenel said.

Who is the MVP of the first half?

“Our leaders have really been our MVP. (Patrick Brown) leads the way. We’ve got that good second tier of leadership with Riley Tufte and Georgii Merkulov. We bring on Christian Wolanin and he’s a leader. Michael Callahan’s been amazing for us. There’s a lot of guys that have done a really good job of setting the bar for us,” said Mougenel.

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— Mike DiPietro stopped 21 shots for his first shutout of the year on Sunday. He has a 15-5 record and his .938 save percentage and 1.74 goals-against average are first in the AHL.

— Frederic Brunet had one of his best games of the season Sunday, with a goal, two assists and strong defensive play.

— John Farinacci assisted on two goals on Saturday and scored Providence’s first goal on Sunday.

— After a nice give and go with John Farinacci, Fabian Lysell snapped a 10-game goal-less streak with a wraparound goal on Saturday.

— Riley Tufte had a goal and an assist on both Saturday and Sunday. He leads the team with 15 goals in 29 games and is seventh in the AHL with plus-19.

— Matej Blumel scored twice on Saturday and once on Sunday. He had an assist on Wednesday.

— Brett Harrison went to the blue paint and potted his first goal since Dec. 27 on Saturday night.

— Christian Wolanin, who has been a tremendous addition, had a pair of assists on Saturday and a power-play goal on Sunday.

— Patrick Brown had an assist on Saturday and three more on Sunday. He leads the team with 13-26-39 in 36 games. His plus-26 is best in the league.

— Back in the lineup for the first time since suffering a lacerated kidney in November, Max Wanner made a good play with 6:50 left in the first period to lift the stick of a Cleveland player and prevent a goal.

— Providence scored on two of its first three shots on Saturday night.

BAD

— The P-Bruins scored just once on 37 shots against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. They didn’t get nearly enough traffic in front of Pens’ goalie Sergei Murashov.

— Late in Wednesday’s loss, with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker, a pass by Dans Locmelis in the offensive zone traveled some 180 feet and ended up in the Providence net for an own goal.

UGLY

— Frederic Brunet had a couple of teeth knocked out when he was blasted into the glass from behind by Boko Imama of the Penguins on Wednesday. There was a referee standing 15 feet away, but there was no penalty on the play.

— Injured: Ty Gallagher