HARTFORD — One more day. At least.

The Providence Bruins assured themselves of that much last night by handing the Hartford Wolf Pack a solid 5-2 thumping in Game Six of their best-of-seven Atlantic Division semifinal series, which now stands squared at 3-3.

Whether the P-Bruins will live to see the remainder of the week depends on them downing the Pack again, in tonight’s Game Seven, set here at 7:05. The winner of the rubber match will go on the division finals, while the loser will simply call it a year.

“We’re excited,” said P-Bruin defenseman Dwayne Zinger. “We’ve got to regroup again, here, and refocus. They’re going to come out with their ‘A’ game and we’ve got to be ready to step up ours to match them.”

Gritty winger Martins Karsums, who netted two goals in the second period, was in full agreement.

“We expect them to come out really hard,” he said. “[But] it wouldn’t be a great feeling to lose [that] game.”

With their season hanging in the balance, Providence roared out to a 2-0 lead in what was a fast-paced opening period. “This was kind of like an early Game Seven for us,” said Zinger. “We knew we had to come out and lay it all out there.” The P-Bruins got goals from two sources — one unlikely (Zinger) and one overdue (T.J. Trevelyan).

Zinger’s came at 8:46, after Sean Bentivoglio poked the puck off the boards to keep it alive, then knocked it ahead to Trevelyan. Trevelyan, in turn pushed it over to Zinger who swept it past Hartford goalie Al Montoya. It was only his second goal in 23 professional career playoff games.

That was followed at 14:26 by Trevelyan, who had 28 goals in the regular season but none in the first five games of this series. However, he was in an opportune spot when Montoya kicked out a drive by Bentivoglio, leaving a juicy rebound for Trevelyan to backhand in.

“Right up until we scored our second goal,” said P-Bruin coach Scott Gordon, “I said to myself that this is what we were doing well, which had gotten away from us from us toward the end of the last game [a 1-0 Hartford win]. It’s been a real crazy series in that the team that has played well in the first [period] has had the game deteriorate and go the other way.”

Providence nearly fell victim to that trend as Hartford attempted a second stanza bounce-back. The Pack twice cut the lead to a goal by sandwiching tallies by Corey Potter and Hannu Pikkarainen around the first of the night by Karsums.

But two forced turnovers in the neutral zone led to goals 37 seconds apart, by Karsums and Marco Rosa. The first of those came at 13:31, after Jay Leach picked the puck from Hartford’s Nigel Dawes, then sent David Krejci down right wing.

Karsums caught up to the play and, when Krejci got him the puck, Karsums blasted it over Montoya’s shoulder.

“He [Krejci] is a great player,” said Karsums. “He sees the ice really well. He probably saw me. I was going to the net and just put it in.”

Montoya was pulled in favor of backup Chris Holt, who was beaten by Rosa, a healthy scratch the last four games, on the first shot he saw.

Meanwhile, Providence goalie Hannu Toivonen (18 saves) made timely saves all night. The most crucial came with two seconds left in the second, when he did the splits to kick out a slap shot by Potter.

“He [Toivonen] really followed the puck well in traffic,” said Gordon. “It’s a huge thing, and you’ve got to be able to fight through that. You know that Hannu is playing his game when he can do that, because all of a sudden, his big body is not small. That’s what I’ve noticed in the last three games with him.”

Providence’s defense was virtually airtight in the third period, allowing just three shots on Toivonen.

ICE CHIPS: Providence is now 19-10 all-time in elimination games. The P-Bruins have been involved in three previous Game Sevens, winning two of them. The Wolf Pack are 3-1 in such encounters. … Among last night’s missing players was defenseman Mark Stuart. Stuart had been shelved with a lower body injury in the first three games, then suited up for the last two. According to Gordon, Stuart will be back in tonight.