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Good, bad & ugly from Providence Bruins weekend

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Riley Tufte is knocked down after depositing his 11th goal of the year in the net against Bridgeport on Friday. (Photo courtesy of Providence Bruins)

The Providence Bruins split their two games over the weekend.

They beat the Bridgeport Islanders, 4-1, at home on Friday. They lost to the Springfield Thunderbirds, 6-4, on the road on Saturday.

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— Michael DiPietro and Mike Callahan got word on Wednesday that they will represent the P-Bruins at the AHL All-Star Classic in Palm Desert, Calif. on Feb. 2 and 3. Both are worthy selections. Vinni Lettieri would have been a deserving pick, too.

— DiPietro stopped 34 of 35 shots in Friday night’s win. He is 12-5-3 with a .925 save percentage. His 2.05 goals-against average is third in the AHL.

— Lettieri had two goals and a helper on Friday. He is third in the AHL in scoring with 14-21-35 in 35 games.

— Fabian Lysell had a productive weekend with two assists on Friday and a tip-in goal on Saturday. He has 3-8-11 in the last 10 games.

— Georgii Merkulov scored a goal and an assist on Friday and set up a Patrick Brown power play score with a good pass on Saturday. He has 5-12-17 in the last 16 games. Seems to me he could contribute on Boston’s sputtering power play.

— Riley Duran played with energy in both games and scored a goal on Saturday.

— Brett Harrison took the puck to the net for a nice goal in Springfield.

— Riley Tufte, Frederic Brunet and Mason Millman are tied for the team lead with plus-10.

— Providence’s next two games are against Syracuse and they’ll face Rochester, Laval and Cleveland over the next couple of weeks. It’s a welcome break from the usual bland diet of Bridgeport, Hartford and Springfield.

BAD

— In Springfield, by the time the P-Bruins registered a shot on net nine minutes in, they were already two goals down.

— Brandon Bussi gave up two goals on six shots in the first 8:04 before being pulled against the Thunderbirds.

— Saturday night was a tough one for Providence’s top line. Matt Poitras was minus-four and Lettieri and Merkulov were minus-three.

— Maybe Poitras had a good reason to slash Springfield’s Corey Schueneman late in the second period. Unfortunately for Poitras, referee Chris Rumble was five feet away and couldn’t miss the infraction. The Thunderbirds scored the go-ahead goal two seconds after the penalty on Poitras expired.

— Merkulov and Lettieri broke in alone on Springfield’s Colton Ellis with 6:28 left in the second period but didn’t score as Ellis turned away Merkulov’s shot.

— After battling back from a two-goal deficit to tie the game, the P-Bruins fell behind again as they gave up a goal with 23 seconds left in the second period.

— The P-Bruins don’t play Bridgeport again for a month. Too bad. The P-Bruins are 8-0 against the last-place Islanders.

UGLY

— Injured: Ian Mitchell, Tyler Pitlick

Good, bad & ugly from Providence Bruins weekend

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John Farinacci celebrates with teammates after scoring in the first period against Hartford (Photo courtesy of Providence Bruins)

The Providence Bruins only played twice last weekend and they won both games.

They started with a 4-1 victory against the Bridgeport Islanders on Friday night, then beat the Hartford Wolf Pack, 4-1, on Saturday night. Both games were on the road.

The month of December was good for the P-Bruins as they went 9-2-1, earning 19 of 24 points. Not too shabby, considering the way they struggled at times in the opening weeks of the season.

Here’s the good, bad & ugly.

GOOD

— As 2025 starts, the Providence Bruins have a record of 17-11-3-0. They are tied for second in the Atlantic Division with 37 points, 4 behind the first-place Hershey Bears.

— Fabian Lysell had one of his best games of the season in Bridgeport. He scored a goal, earned a primary assist on two other goals and was plus-3. The next night in Boston, Lysell played his first NHL game for the Bruins and didn’t look out of place in a win over Columbus.

— Riley Tufte had his most productive game of the season with 2-1-3 and plus-3 against Bridgeport. He is second on the team with 9 goals.

— John Farinacci had 3 assists and was plus-3 in the win at Bridgeport. The next night in Hartford he scored 1:40 into the game and set up a Max Jones goal early in the second period.

— Matt Poitras had an empty net goal and an assist in Hartford. He has 8-10-18 in 19 games.

— Providence received good goaltending in both games. Michael DiPietro stopped 31 of 32 shots on Friday and Brandon Bussi kicked out 36 of 37 on Saturday, including 15 in the first period.

— Billy Sweezey made quick work of Hartford’s 6-foot-7 Dylan Roobroeck in a late-game bout on Saturday.

— Both Frederic Brunet and Ian Mitchell were plus-3 against Bridgeport.

BAD

— Jeffrey Viel is tied for the league lead in minor penalties with 22.

— Providence’s power play on the road is 27th in the AHL at 13 percent – 7 for 54.

— They are 0-8-1-0 when trailing after two periods.

UGLY

— Injured: Ian Mitchell

Good, bad & ugly from Providence Bruins week

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Matt Poitras beats Hartford’s Louis Domingue through the five-hole for Providence’s second goal on Sunday. (Photo courtesy of Providence Bruins)

After struggling to keep their heads above water for the first couple of months of the season, the Providence Bruins are now one of the hottest teams in the American Hockey League.

They won all three of their games last week, extending their victory streak to six and moving up to second place in the Atlantic Division.

The P-Bruins started with a 4-2 road win against the Bridgeport Islanders on Wednesday. Back at home on Friday, they beat Bridgeport again, 5-3. They followed that with a 5-3 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack at home on Sunday.

“It’s not like the effort wasn’t there (when the team was losing),” said coach Ryan Mougenel after Sunday’s game. “The one thing we’ve had is a lot of continuity. That helps a lot, especially as we’ve kind of been through (some struggles) a little bit. With the same guys pushing they get used to each other, there’s some chemistry building and our team game is building.

“For me it comes from the leadership group that’s been outstanding. And it’s not just guys like (Lettieri and Brown). We talk about them a lot. But the Viels, the Mitchells, the Callahans have done a lot of little things that translate into wins. I’m proud of how they’ve built the group.”

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— As of Sunday night, Providence was 14-10-2. With 30 points, they trailed the first place Hershey Bears by nine points in the Atlantic Division. Just a point behind the P-Bruins are Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Charlotte.

— Matt Poitras has goals in 6 straight games and 11 points in his last 7 games. In Sunday’s game, he unselfishly passed up a shot at the empty net and instead fed Georgii Merkulov for a goal. Overall, he has 6-8-14 and a plus-8 in 14 games.

— Vinni Lettieri had two assists in each of Providence’s three games. He has 1-11-12 in his last seven games and is up to fifth in the AHL in scoring with 10-17-27 in 26 games.

— Georgii Merkulov has a 7-game point streak. After a slow start he has 6-17-23 in 23 games.

— The P-Bruins struggled to score earlier in the season, but now they’ve put up 28 goals in the last 6 games.

— Fabian Lysell had a pair of productive games. He scored a goal on Friday and had two assists on Sunday. The first helper on Sunday was a pretty setup for a Patrick Brown goal.

— Max Jones scored a pretty goal on an individual effort in Bridgeport.

— Jackson Edward scored his first pro goal in Bridgeport on Wednesday.

— Jeffrey Viel had a goal and an assist on Sunday.

BAD

— On Sunday, with 60 seconds left in a 5-2 game, referee Liam Maaskant felt the need to call a holding-the-stick penalty on Hartford’s Ryder Korczak. C’mon, man. Show that you have a feel for where the game is.

— On Friday, after a Bridgeport player fell down in the general vicinity of Providence’s Frederic Brunet, referee Sydney Harris whistled Brunet for tripping. Ridiculous.

UGLY

—  The P-Bruins had zero power plays on Wednesday night in Bridgeport. None. Not one.

Good, bad & ugly from Providence Bruins weekend

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Mason Millman unloads a shot that ended up in the net for Providence’s first goal on Saturday night. (Photo courtesy of Providence Bruins)

It’s been feast or famine for the Providence Bruins in recent weeks, but they ate like kings over the last three games as they left their offensive struggles behind them, put up a total of 14 goals and won three in a row.

They went on the road to beat the Utica Comets, 3-2, on Friday, then returned home to beat the Bridgeport Islanders, 6-3, on Saturday and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 5-0, on Sunday.

“The guys should be proud of how they played this weekend. They got the message. We got the win (on Saturday) but when you take ownership of your game, I think there’s guys, our staff included, who knew we had to be better. For a three-in-three, the guys played extremely hard,” said coach Ryan Mougenel.

“It was our older guys, they set the tone (on Sunday). Tyler Pitlick, Patrick Brown, Vinni Lettieri were outstanding. Mike Callahan and Ian Mitchell have handled a lot of difficult minutes. Cally for me has been absolutely outstanding.”

As of Sunday night, they were in fifth place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 11-10-2 for 24 points. They are only one point away from second place.

Here’s the good, bad and ugly.

GOOD

— The power play went 5 for 14 across the three games – 2 for 6 on Friday, 1 for 2 on Saturday and 2 for 5 on Sunday. It was 15th in the AHL as of Sunday evening at 18 percent. That’s a big improvement from a few weeks ago when it was one of the worst in the league.

— It was a good week for Matt Poitras. He’s scored goals in three straight games and added a couple of assists. He looks to be in better game shape than when he arrived. He’s been more effective deeper into his shifts and better able to win races and battle for pucks. He has 10 points in 11 games with three goals and seven assists.

— Brandon Bussi appears to be finding his game with two solid wins in a row. He kicked out 18 of 20 shots in Utica and stopped all 21 shots against the Penguins in recording his first shutout of the season.

— Vinni Lettieri had a goal and three assists in the three games. He continues to lead the team with 10-11-21 in 23 games.

— Jeffrey Viel’s shorthanded score on Sunday was one of the prettiest goals of the season. “It was good to see him get rewarded for how hard he works,” said Mougenel.

— Georgii Merkulov had a goal and an assist against the Comets, an assist against the Islanders and a goal against the Penguins. He has 5-13-18 in 20 games.

— Mason Millman has contributed solid minutes since his recall from Maine in mid-November. The 23-year-old defenseman had a goal and an assist on Saturday and two assists on Sunday.

— Jackson Edward made a perfect pass to set up Matt Poitras’ goal in the second period against the Penguins.

— Brett Harrison snapped a streak of 33 regular-season games without a goal on Sunday.

BAD

— It was such a good week that the only bad I could come up with is that the penalty kill is 27th in the league on the road at 14.6 percent.

UGLY

— Injured: Alec Regula