PROVIDENCE — One “season” is over. And it was a very good one.

Now that the Providence Bruins’ impressive regular season has come to a close, though, it is time for the playoff “season,” which begins tonight (7:05) at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center when the P-Bruins play host to the Manchester Monarchs in the first game of a best-of-seven division semifinal series in the chase for the Calder Cup.

The P-Bruins’ appearance in the American Hockey League playoffs, and the fact they earned home-ice advantage, wasn’t in much doubt after a fast start and continued winning ways during the winter and spring.

That success translated into a 55-18-3-4 record, which tied Providence for third all-time in AHL regular-season wins. The P-Bruins’ point total of 117 also tied for third-best all-time, and along the way Providence set a league record with 28 wins on the road.

So while making the playoffs wasn’t a late-season issue for Providence, as it was for most teams, coach Scott Gordon and his assistant coach, Rob Murray, had a different task on their hands.

“We wanted to go down the stretch playing very well,” said Gordon the other day.

He and Murray were successful in that mission. Providence had seven games this month and went 5-2, including a shootout victory and a shutout win in three games against the Monarchs in April, finishing with a regular-season 6-2 mark against its first-round playoff opponent.

“That was important. Down the stretch, we played the same way we played the same way we had all year,” said Gordon. “We put an emphasis on making sure we didn’t change anything and didn’t take the foot off the pedal. It would have been easy to do that because we had no pressure on us as far as finishing first or getting home ice.”

Not that Gordon was surprised by his team’s attention to the task at hand over the final month.

“We had such a good team concept,” said Gordon. “We had a lot of individuals who had good years, but that was a product of the people they played with and how well they played. It was a case of everyone playing up to that level.”

The seeds of the successful regular season were sewn early on, when the P-Bruins were forced to play their first 10 games on the road because of renovations being done at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Providence went 8-1-1 in those games.

“That set the tempo for the season,” said Gordon. “One of the things that was impressive about this team is the 28 wins on the road. That speaks to the work ethic of the team. It’s not normal to win that many games on the road.”

The P-Bruins managed to succeed partly because of a balanced attack.

Left winger Pascal Pelletier led the way by scoring 37 goals, fourth-best in the league and only two behind league leader Jason Krog, and adding 38 assists for 75 points, which placed him ninth in the AHL’s scoring race.

Right wingers Martins Karsums (20-43-63) and Jeff Hoggan (29-31-60) were next on Providence’s scoring list, but the P-Bruins had 10 players with at least 36 points over the 80-game schedule. Brett Skinner was the fifth-highest-scoring defenseman at 7-40-47.

Then there’s the goaltending. Tuukka Rask played in 45 games, compiling a 27-13 record, a 2.33 goals-against average and a .905 saves percentage. Rask missed about 10 days, beginning in late March, because of an injury, but returned to play in the P-Bruins’ final two games, last Saturday and Sunday.

Gordon is expecting Rask to shoulder the playoff goaltending load, even seeing a silver lining in the late injury.

“Sometimes to be able to get a break, even if you don’t want it (late in the year), can give you a chance to recharge your batteries,” said Gordon.

While the P-Bruins enter the playoffs as the cream of the crop from the regular season, the Monarchs aren’t expected to be a first-round pushover. They have excelled in the special-teams facet of the game, which is very important in the playoffs, often making the difference between advancing and heading home to tee times.

“Manchester has the best power play in the league, so it’s important for us to stay disciplined and not spend time in the penalty box,” said Gordon.

The Monarchs’ top four scorers have done major damage on the power play, as well as in other situations. Leading scorer Teddy Purcell finished with 25 goals and 58 assists for a team-high 83 points. A little more than half of his goals (13) came on the power play.

Also prolific on the power play for Manchester were Brian Boyle (31-31-62), Gabe Gauthier (23-37-60) and Matt Moulson (28-28-56). They had 16, 15 and 14 power-play goals, respectively.

The second game will be played Friday in Providence. The action then will move to Manchester for games Saturday and Monday. If more games are necessary, they will be played in Providence on April 25 and 26, and at Manchester on April 28.

skrasner@projo.com