HARTFORD — As a group, the Providence Bruins felt they were playing their best hockey of the season as they headed into their first-round playoff set with the Hartford WolfPack.

They picked the wrong time to play some of their worst hockey.

Outplayed in just about every phase of the game, the P-Bruins were embarrassed by Hartford, 5-1, in Game One of their best-of-seven Atlantic Division semifinal last night.

“We came out flat,” said winger Pascal Pelletier. “We literally came out flat.”

P-Bruins coach Scott Gordon was even more condemning in his assessment.

“We stunk,” he said. “For 60 minutes. That was probably our worst game in at least a month.”

In fact, you’d have to go back a lot farther than that, all the way back to the opening night of the season (Oct. 7), to find a more lopsided thumping (7-2 by Portland) than the one they absorbed last night.

Whatever “mojo” they may have lost last night will have to return to them in tomorrow night’s Game Two. Otherwise, they could be looking at a short and bitter playoff stay.

“We’ll take a good look in the mirror, all of us,” said veteran defenseman Nathan Dempsey. “And try to regroup.”

By contrast, Hartford received a superb top-to-bottom effort, particularly from its top line of Nigel Dawes (2 goals, 3 assists), rookie Alex Bourret (2 goals, 2 assists) and Jarkko Immonen (goal).

“They were skating and moving the puck,” said Dempsey, “and we didn’t have an answer for them.”

Bourret set the tone by scoring on the first shot of the game, a slapper just 24 seconds in.

“It was a shock,” said Pelletier. “We were flat, [with] no life on the bench. No intensity. We were there, but we weren’t really there. Just bodies on the ice.”

Providence showed signs of life late in the first, after successfully killing off back-to-back penalties, then getting a power-play goal of its own from Sean Bentivoglio at 15:04.

Bentivoglio was stationed at the front edge of the right circle when he banked in a tight-angle shot off the left post, past goalie Al Montoya (25 saves).

But bright spots were scarce to nonexistent after that.

Hartford reclaimed the lead with second-period goals by Immonen and Dawes.

Immonen’s wrister, which slipped in under the cross bar at 8:04, proved to be the game-winner.

Hartford added two more goals in the third to put matters out of reach.

P-Bruins goalie Hannu Toivonen (17 saves) departed in favor of backup Jordan Sigalet after Bourret’s second goal, at 6:51.

Sigalet stopped all eight shots he faced.

ICE CHIPS

The P-Bruins’ defense was missing key members Mark Stuart and Matt Lashoff, both of whom were banged up in action over the weekend. According to Gordon, both could be back for Game Two. Taking their places were stand-ins Ryan Glenn and Jason Platt … Misspellings on the backs of jerseys are rare, but not unheard of. Perhaps the most famous instance of such a fashion faux pas came when one Wayne “G-r-e-t-k-z-y” took the ice soon after coming to the New York Rangers. So it was that the nameplate of P-Bruins wing Nate DiCasmirro sported an extra “s” last night…Hartford will be without its muscleman, Francis Lessard, for the entire series. Lessard received a 10-game suepension from the AHL for his part in a bizarre altercation involving Portland’s Trevor Gillies between periods of Sunday’s regular-season finale.

Lessard compounded his problems by making obscene gestures to the Portland crowd as he skated off the ice … Hartford lost its captain, RW/D Craig Weller, to a “midsection” injury midway through the first period. His availability for Game Two is questionable.