Zane McIntyre starts in goal for the Providence Bruins on the road against the Charlotte Checkers this evening at 6.

The teams will play again tomorrow at 1 p.m.

Rob O’Gara, just back from Boston, is in the lineup for the P-Bruins.

Jeremy Lauzon didn’t make the trip after suffering an upper-body injury in the win at Binghamton on Wednesday.

It is the first Providence-Charlotte game since March 2011, when the P-Bruins won, 4-2, at The Dunk.

Providence got goals from Alain Goulet, Trent Whitfield (2) and Stefan Chaput. Anton Khudobin kicked out 25 shots.

Providence starts the night in third place in the Atlantic Division with a .625 winning percentage. Charlotte (.579) is fifth.

Here are the lines for Providence:

Agostino-Czarnik-Senyshyn

Porter-JFK-Fitzgerald

Blidh-Cave-Acolatse

Gabrielle-Hennessy-Hargrove

The D pairs:

Cross-Clifton

Breen-Johansson

O’Gara-Zboril

Binnington backs up McIntyre.

Zane McIntyre will start in goal for the Providence Bruins tonight as they play their second and final game of the season in Binghamton against the Devils.

In maybe their strongest game to this point, Providence beat the Devils, 4-1, in Binghamton on Oct. 27.

The P-Bruins start the night in fourth place in the Atlantic Division with a .600 win percentage. Binghamton is fifth in the North Division with a .433 win percentage.

Providence will get back Ryan Fitzgerald (lower body, missed one game) and Jakub Zboril (upper body, missed three games) tonight.

Jordan Szwarz, sent down by Boston this afternoon, will not play tonight.

Zach Senyshyn, with a goal and seven points in his last six games, is trending up after a slow start and looks to continue his solid play tonight.

“There was an adjustment going from junior to my first full season pro, definitely some growing pains at the start. I’m starting to hit my stride and feel more comfortable, getting a lot more confidence,” he said after recording two assists on Sunday.

Senyshyn has become more noticeable as he figures out how to take advantage of open ice.

“My speed is my strong point, I want to use it as much as possible. (Finding room to skate has) had a lot to do with my coaches, watching a lot of video and showing me what I need to work on to open up space and work more efficiently. That’s been a big thing for me. I’ve also been playing with some good players. They’ve been opening up room for me to skate, as well,” he said.

I thought Senyshyn struck the right tone with his answer after I asked how closely he is following fellow 2015 first-rounder Jake DeBrusk, who benefited from a full year in Providence before graduating to Boston.

“Jake’s a great player and it’s always nice to see him with success, but I think we’re two different players, have two different paths. He’s doing great things up there. I have my own path. When I’m ready, I think I’ll be able to go up there and succeed. Right now I’m working on my game here. It’s nice to watch him and take a few things away from what he does really well, but I’m focused on getting wins down here,” Senyshyn said.

Coach Jay Leach is pleased with the progress show by the 20-year-old, who is fourth on the team in scoring with 2-6-8 in 14 games.

“He’s a kid that’s trying to find his way. He’s done a terrific job of listening and doing what’s asked, using his speed when he can. The points are more or less secondary to the way we want him to play. He been doing that and because he’s been doing that, he finds himself in the right spots.

“He really has come here with an open canvas, wanting to just get better. He acknowledged early with us that he wasn’t where he needed to be. He wants to get better and that’s what you’re seeing,” Leach said.

“I still don’t know if we know exactly what he is, which is not a bad thing at all. We don’t want to put a cap on anybody. He can do a lot of different things. I wanted to get him on the (penalty) kill (on Sunday), but it was a tight game and I didn’t, but that’s something that I want to do. DeBrusk killed, Heinen killed and that got them more minutes and now they can kill up (with Boston). That’s going to be something we do with Seny.”

Tonight’s lines*

Agostino-Czarnik-Fitzgerald

Blidh-Cave-Senyshyn

Porter-JFK-Acolatse

Hargrove-Hennessy-Hickman

*Right wings could be shuffled a bit, per Leach

Defense pairs

Lauzon-Cross

Breen-Johansson

Zboril-Clifton

Binnington will be McIntyre’s backup

 

 

Riddled with callups and injuries, the Providence Bruins split two games at home over the weekend. They did not play well in a 4-1 loss to the Hershey Bears on Friday night, their fourth defeat in a row. But they bounced back with a strong 4-1 win over the Bears on Sunday afternoon.

“I don’t want to say we had our backs against the wall, but we had to have some urgency (on Sunday),” said coach Jay Leach. “Right from the start we were on our toes and skating and guys were engaged and helping each other out. We talked about it (on Saturday). We have a young group and our older guys are going to be asked to help that young group out in a lot of different ways. I thought they did that really well and the young guys followed.”

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

*** Colby Cave showed good hands in faking out Pheonix Copley for a goal on Sunday and later assisted on Colton Hargrove’s tally. He also spent a lot of time matched against Hershey’s top line of Chris Bourque, Travis Boyd and Wayne Simpson and helped keep them off the scoreboard.

*** With two assists on Sunday, Zach Senyshyn has 1-6-7 in his last 6 games.

*** In his first game since Oct. 28, Justin Hickman played well on Friday, scoring a nice breakaway goal for his first of the season.

*** The P-Bruins held Hershey to 18 shots on Sunday. And they were opportunistic at the other end, scoring four goals on 20 shots

*** Jacob Forsbacka Karlsson made an alert play on Sunday, pouncing on a Copley pass behind the goal line and stuffing it into the empty net to give Providence the lead just 1:43 into the game.

*** Kenny Agostino was returned to Providence late on Sunday afternoon. Some of the other callups are likely to follow as Boston’s injured players get back to good health.

BAD

*** Providence gave up two goals in the first 5:57 on Friday night.

*** The next three games are on the road, as the P-Bruins visit Binghamton on Wednesday and Charlotte on Saturday and Sunday.

*** Tough break for Jesse Gabrielle on Sunday. He was originally credited with an assist on Austin Czarnik’s goal, which would have been Gabrielle’s first point, but the helper was later changed — correctly — to Adam Payerl.

*** The P-Bruins aren’t getting many goals from their defensemen. Only Tommy Cross (2) and Emil Johansson have scored so far.

UGLY

*** Hickman’s goal on Friday was Providence’s first at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center since Oct. 22, a span of 163:02. During that time, Bridgeport and Hershey outscored the P-Bruins, 10-0.

*** Injured: Jakub Zboril (upper body), Ryan Fitzgerald (lower body)

PROVIDENCE — Chris Bourque of the Hershey Bears has even greater incentive to light up American Hockey League goalies this season.

The 31-year-old left winger, who has won two scoring titles and three Calder Cups in the AHL, is in the running for a slot on the U.S. team that will compete in the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, in February.

As usual, Bourque is putting up points this season. He was the league’s leading scorer with 7-16-23 in 16 games heading into Friday night’s contest in Providence.

“I had a couple of conversations with (USA Hockey) over the summer,’’ Bourque said on Friday morning. “They called me and let me know I was in the mix, that I was on their radar for making the team. I’ve had a couple of more conversations with them since then.

“I talked to (Olympic team assistant coach) Scott Young right before the season. He told me, ‘Do your thing and we’ll be in contact.’ Get off to a good start and all that kind of stuff. I’ve obviously been thinking about it a little bit, but I’m not worried about it right now.’’

Bourque is on an AHL contract with Hershey so he is eligible to be loaned to the U.S. team. Players with NHL contracts are not eligible to go to the Olympics.

He has a history with USA Hockey. He participated in Select festivals when he was a teenager, played on two World Junior Championship teams, and suited up for the U.S. in the Deutschland Cup in Germany a few years ago when he was playing in the KHL.

The Olympics would be the icing on the cake.

“Any time you get the opportunity to represent your country, you jump right on it. When it’s the Olympics, that’s a no-brainer. It’s a special chance for guys in my situation, where if the guys in the NHL were doing it, we wouldn’t have the opportunity,” he said.

“I’m excited about that, but obviously (USA Hockey has) some decisions to make. I’ve just got to keep playing well and hopefully things will take care of themselves. It should be exciting. We’ll see.’’

PROVIDENCE — Zane McIntyre vs. Pheonix Copley is expected to be the goalie matchup tonight at 7 when the Providence Bruins host the Hershey Bears at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.

After a day off on Saturday, the teams will play again on Sunday at 1 p.m., also at The Dunk.

The P-Bruins — in fourth place in the Atlantic Division with a 7-4-2-0 record and .615 win percentage — will be looking to get back on track after dropping three games in a row, the last two in overtime.

As of late Friday morning, the injury-ravaged parent club, playing next in San Jose on Saturday night, had made no additional callups from the P-Bruins. Obviously, that could change before the puck is dropped in Providence tonight.

Hershey — sixth in the Atlantic with a 7-7-0-2 record and .500 win percentage — is getting its game in gear after a slow start that was directly related to injuries to goalies Copley and Vitek Vanecek, both of whom are back in the lineup now.

The Bears are coming off a 3-2 win at home against Syracuse on Wednesday. They are led by one of the top lines in the AHL — Chris Bourque, Travis Boyd and Wayne Simpson.

Bourque, who leads the AHL in scoring with 7-16-23 in 16 games, had two goals against Syracuse, both on setups from Simpson, who had a career AHL year with the P-Bruins last season before landing an NHL deal with Washington during the summer.

While Bourque and Simpson are familiar faces here, Boyd maybe flies under the radar a bit, though not in the eyes of P-Bruins coach Jay Leach.

“That Boyd is a nice player. He’s got some serious skill,” Leach said this morning.

Handling Boyd’s line will be a test for Providence’s defense, which as usual will feature three rookies tonight.

For Leach and all his coaching counterparts around the league, mistakes by young defensemen as they adjust to the pro game are par for the course.

“I’m a huge believer that it takes defensemen a long time to really mature. You’re just going to have to live with it. We had four icings in the third period (on Sunday) and they were all rookie D-men not being able to execute a pass. The only way to get over that, in my opinion, is just playing, getting more comfortable,” he said.

“When you have the puck on your stick and you’re the last guy back and it’s 3-2, you don’t want to give it up because you know it’s coming right back down your throat. So there’s more pressure and therefore you don’t execute.

“Consistently being in those situations eventually will lead to better execution. It takes a while, unless you’re something special, like Charlie McAvoy. And you still see mistakes with Charlie McAvoy, just not as many.”

Here are Providence’s lines:

Porter-Czarnik-Payerl

Fitzgerald-JFK-Senyshyn

Blidh-Cave-Acolatse

Gabrielle-Hennessy-Hickman

Providence’s defense pairs:

Johansson-Cross

Lauzon-Grzelcyk

Breen-Clifton

Binnington will be the backup goalie.

Scratches: Zboril (upper body), Hargrove

 

There’s nothing wrong with two points out of four on the road with tough travel in between, but you can make a case that the Providence Bruins should have had more over the weekend. They went toe-to-toe with the Eastern Conference-leading Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Saturday before losing 20 seconds into overtime. Then they were beaten by the lowly Springfield Thunderbirds on Sunday after taking a too-many-men penalty in OT.

Here’s  the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

*** After going 10 games without a goal, Ryan Fitzgerald broke out with two on Saturday and another on Sunday.

*** Zach Senyshyn was effective on Saturday night, with no points to show for it, then he was better on Sunday as he assisted on all three Providence goals. The youngster is showing off his speed as he figures out how to find open ice.

*** Kudos to Chris Breen and Kenny Agostino for sticking up for their teammates on Saturday night. Breen decisioned Tom Sestito after the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton winger took a run at Emil Johansson, and Agostino, in only his third career fight, took on big Andrey Pedan, who knocked Jakub Zboril out of the game with a charge. (UPDATE: On Monday, the AHL suspended Pedan for three games.)

*** Nice resilience by the P-Bruins on Saturday as they tied the game with 29 seconds left in regulation after giving up the go-ahead goal to the Pens a couple of minutes earlier.

*** Zane McIntyre was brilliant during a third-period 5-on-3 for the Penguins on Saturday.

*** Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson scored a goal and an assist on Sunday.

*** Jumping into the rush, Johansson scored his first goal in North America on Sunday off a jet-fueled zone entry by Senyshnyn and a nifty pass from JFK.

***Colby Cave scored his first goal of the season against the Penguins.

*** Sena Acolatse had an assist in both games.

*** Providence’s first goal on Saturday — Fitzgerald from Matt Grzelcyk — was straight out of Charlestown.

BAD

*** The P-Bruins were caught with too many men on the ice in overtime on Sunday, then gave up the decisive goal while a man down.

*** Not a good weekend for special teams. The power play went 1 for 12 and is now 15th in the AHL at 17.2 percent. The P-Bruins’ PK is 21st in the league at 81.4 percent after Springfield went three for three with the man advantage.

UGLY

*** The P-Bruins squandered a 2-0 lead on Saturday and a 3-1 lead on Sunday.

*** After the bus ride from Pennsylvania, Providence didn’t get to its hotel in Springfield until the wee hours, then had a 3 p.m. start time against the Thunderbirds.

*** Injured:  Zboril (upper body).

Would it have been a complete surprise if the police had wanted to have a word with Zane McIntyre once he arrived in Wilkes-Barre on Friday?

I’m going to say no. Not after the robbery-in-broad-daylight that the Providence Bruins goalie pulled off in that city six month ago.

In case you’ve forgotten, McIntyre stopped 50 shots against the favored Penguins in Game Five of the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs on April 30. The P-Bruins squeezed out a 2-1 win and moved on to the second round.

McIntyre — no surprise — gets the start tonight against Clark Donatelli’s Penguins, who are first in the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference.

Providence will again be without Peter Cehlarik, who has missed seven games with a lower-body injury. There’s a chance he could return tomorrow.

Tonight’s lines:

Agostino-Czarnik-Senyshyn

Blidh-Cave-Acolatese

Fitzgerald-JFK-Payerl

Porter-Hennessy-Gabrielle

The D pairs:

Lauzon-Cross

Grzelcyk-Zboril

Breen-Johannson

Binnington is the backup goalie.

After the game, the P-Bruins will bus to Springfield for a 3 p.m. game against the Thunderbirds on Sunday.

PROVIDENCE — Brown and Clarkson played a sloppy but entertaining game before a sparse crowd at frosty Meehan Auditorium on Friday night, with the nationally ranked Golden Knights coming away with a 5-3 win.

A defensive struggle it was not.

“It was up and down – a track meet,” said Brown coach Brendan Whittet.

In the end, it came down to goaltending and special teams, as it so often does.

The Golden Knights went 3 for 7 with the man advantage, while Brown went 2 for 7. Jake Kielly stopped 32 of 35 in the Clarkson net, while Gavin Nieto made 23 saves on 27 shots. The last goal was an empty-netter.

“We’ve got to find a way to make sure we’re a little better in those aspects,” Whittet said.

Here are five quick hits on the game:

POSSESSION

Surprisingly, Brown had the puck more than Clarkson did.

The Bears outshot the Golden Knights over the final two periods, 23-13. And the Bears ended up with 65-43 edge in shot attempts.

“They’re probably the best team in our league, quite honestly, and they’re a possession-driven team. They’re a team that plays fast, so for us to be able to have the puck as much as we did, to out-attempt them after that first period, we did a lot of good things. We have to find a way to build on that,” said Whittet.

SECOND BEST

Through five games, Brown’s best players have not been their best players.

Sam Lafferty, with only one goal this season, had five shots but no points on Friday.

“He’s getting better. When it’s early (in the season), sometimes you’re not as crisp in terms of the tenacity you have to play with, the strength you have to play with. He’s got great speed and he’s got to use it, but he also has to realize we’re playing a gritty team,” said Whittet.

“That goes for him, (Charlie) Corcoran, (Max) Willman – our offensive players. One of the biggest things you have to have is playing with tenacity and grit, strong on sticks. I thought they did a better job tonight, but they’ve got to keep growing in that aspect.”

THE BIG LINE

Clarkson’s trio of Devin Brousseau, Nico Sturm and Brendan Rempal may be the best in the ECAC.

“That top line is legit,” Whittet said.

With a dozen NHL scouts watching, the trio totaled seven shots, but Brown kept them off the scoreboard.

FRESHMAN FLASH

Friday night was my first look at Brown freshman Alec Mehr, who has been a pleasant surprise in the early going. The night before his 20th birthday, Mehr scored a goal and added an assist. He’s now second on the team in scoring with 2-2-4 in 5 games.

At 6 feet and 195 pounds, Mehr gets his nose dirty.

“He plays the game hard. North-South game. He’ll go to the net-front. He’s really good at possessing pucks and he’s pretty responsible. He’s a fearless kid and he plays with a lot of energy, jam and jump. He’s been excellent from the get-go,” said Whittet.

MUST-WIN SATURDAY

There is nothing complicated about Saturday night. Brown simply has to beat St. Lawrence, which is 1-9-1 after being blitzed by Yale, 6-1, on Friday night.

“We have to find a way to get two points tomorrow,” said Whittet.

A loss would leave the Bears with a 1-5 record heading into next weekend’s trip to Quinnipiac and Princeton.

And that would be a hole that would be very hard to climb out of.

BOSTON — Despite a brutal run of injuries, the Boston Bruins have earned 11 points in their last 8 games. With a lineup laden with rookies and callups from Providence, they are managing to keep their heads above water while waiting for the likes of Brad Marchand, David Krejci, David Backes, Adam McQuaid, Noel Acciari, Ryan Spooner and Anton Khudobin to get healthy.

Here are three quick hits from Monday night’s 5-3 win over the Minnesota Wild:

THE GIVING SEASON

The stat sheet showed a game-high three giveaways for David Pastrnak on Monday night. His turnover on Minnesota’s third goal was particularly egregious.

Coach Bruce Cassidy had an insightful answer when Mick Colageo of The New Bedford Standard Times asked him about the challenge of trying to get Pastrnak to be more responsible without stifling his superb offensive instincts.

“It’s a tough job right there. It’s a good question. Sometimes you’re going to give him some rope. Hopefully he doesn’t hang himself with it. Other times you are going to pull back. That’s just a feel – sometimes it matters how the rest of the group is going. Who else is in the lineup? Are you putting a better player out there in that position?” Cassidy said.

“Sometimes you just send a hard message. . . . Hey, enough is enough. There’s different ways to do it in game. Tomorrow, there’s conversations. Hey, do you want to be a leader? You’re getting into that phase of your career. Is that how leaders play? Kind of see what he thinks of the whole situation. He might have a different answer, so those are the challenges that coaches face trying to grow his game without shutting him right off. So that’s what we’ll do tomorrow.”

Interesting. I don’t suppose there will be a camera from “Behind the B” in the room when Cassidy and Pastrnak talk things over, will there?

SZWARZ MEASURING UP

Jordan Szwarz is a feel-good story in the making.

A year ago this week, Providence Bruins general manager John Ferguson Jr. tore up Szwarz’ tryout contract and signed him to an AHL deal.

He went on to lead the P-Bruins in scoring and earn an NHL contract for 2017-18.

Recalled from Providence three games ago, Szwarz on Monday had his best game to date. He played a solid 200-foot game, assisted on two goals and was plus-three.

And, after playing 14 minutes at center between Frank Vatrano and Jake DeBrusk, he earned an atta-boy from Cassidy.

“He competes hard. He’s on the right side of battles. He does a lot of little things well,” said Cassidy.

“I’ve liked his game. He’s had young guys on his wing and he’s doing a good job with them.”

For his part, Szwarz is feeling good about his play. “Each game that goes by I feel more and more confident,” he said.

It remains to be seen whether Szwarz can do enough to stick around after Boston’s injured players get healthy, but he is off to a good start.

SIGNS OF LIFE FROM BELESKEY

He still doesn’t have any points this season, but Matt Beleskey did his part on Monday. In 11:16, he had three shots and two hits, as well as a fight with Luke Kunin just eight seconds after Vatrano had given the Bruins a 2-1 lead in the second period.

“I thought that Matt did a good job today all around the ice. He was really solid defensively, you know, he’s getting pucks behind their defenseman, and he’s another guy that had missed some games so he wants to prove that he belongs in there every night and that’s a great attitude for those guys instead of worrying about other stuff, they just went out when their number was called and played and played hard,” said Cassidy.

“So good job for Matt and that’s something that he can do for us. He has that ability, when the abrasive play starts he can answer the bell.”

With a number of their better players on recall in Boston, the Providence Bruins went 1-2 over the weekend. They lost 1-0 at home to Bridgeport on Friday; defeated Hartford 5-0 on the road on Saturday; and absorbed a 6-0 beating at the hands of Bridgeport at The Dunk on Sunday.

Here’s how coach Jay Leach summed it up: “It allows us to kind of see where we’re at. We’ve lost some bodies. We’ve got guys that we’re looking at to play significant minutes. We can assess where they are and move on from there. In that regard, I think it’s a weekend that we should build upon. Obviously there are some things we need to work on.’’

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

*** Jordan Binnington pitched a tidy 33-save shutout in Hartford. He has a .943 save percentage in three starts.

*** Dan Vladar played very well on Friday night, making 31 saves in a tough-luck loss. His save percentage in two starts is .949.

*** Providence’s power play bounced back with 2-for-3 on Saturday after going 0-for-4 on Friday.

*** After going without a point in four straight games, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson scored a goal and set up another in Hartford.

*** The puck’s not going in for Colby Cave, but he continues to play a strong 200-foot game.

*** Colton Hargrove has four points (3-1-4) in his last four games.

*** Sena Acolatse provided a physical presence with three fights and some hard hits.

*** It’s been a while since there were four fights in a game at The Dunk. Acolatse (2), Tommy Cross and Adam Payerl all answered the bell on Sunday.

BAD

*** Terry Koharski slapped Acolatse with a double minor for attempted butt-ending late in Friday’s game. Questionable, at best. Same goes for the faceoff violation called by linesman Libor Suchanek on Sunday.

*** Tough one for Zane McIntyre on Sunday. Just back from Boston and making his first start in 10 days, he gave up 6 goals on 37 shots.

*** The P-Bruins didn’t record their first shot on net until 9:14 into Friday’s game.

*** Jesse Gabrielle had a team-high 5 shots on Saturday, but couldn’t beat either of Hartford’s goalies. He’s still looking for his first goal.

*** Five of Providence next seven games are on the road.

UGLY

*** Peter Cehlarik (lower body) has missed six straight games.

*** Connor Clifton was minus-four on Sunday.