Here we are again.

The Providence Bruins are in another hole that they’ll need to dig themselves out of in order to save their season. Only this time, the hole is just a little deeper.

Providence is going to have to find a way to not only win three in a row but pick themselves up after an embarrassing 7-2 defeat Friday night in Syracuse during Game 4. Michael Bournival lit the lamp twice for the Crunch while Yanni Gourde and Cory Conacher each had a goal and three assists, and goaltender Mike McKenna made 33 saves on 35 shots. Danton Heinen and Jordan Szwarz both scored for the Baby B’s while Wayne Simpson assisted on both goals.

Syracuse drew first blood just 3:57 into the game as Ben Thomas took a backhanded pass from Gourde at the top of the left faceoff circle and ring it off the post and in past Zane McIntyre for the 1-0 lead.

But Providence struck back to even things at 1-1. At 7:07, Simpson outmuscled Syracuse defenders along the near-side boards and found a streaking Szwarz in the slot, who ripped a wrist shot past McKenna for his sixth of the playoffs.

Each side had their share of near misses, including a puck squirting past McKenna and roll towards the goal before being covered by the netminder and Syracuse hitting a post midway through the stanza. But late in the period, Anton Blidh and Chris Porter were whistled for respective high-sticking and slashing penalties just 16 seconds apart, giving Syracuse a 5-on-3 opportunity. Matt Taormina made the P-Bruins pay as he took a cross-ice pass from Gourde and have plenty of room to blast a slapper by McIntyre with just 11 seconds left in the period.

The Crunch wasted little time getting back on the scoreboard in the second. Just 33 seconds in, Bournival chipped in a rebound from a Conacher shot to extend the Syracuse lead to 3-1. But Providence would pull within a goal when Danton Heinen potted his league-leading ninth goal of the playoffs on the power play 1:55 into the second. After the goal, Tommy Cross engaged in a shoving match with Gabriel Dumont, leading to both of them being called for roughing.

At 4:31, Syracuse pulled away for good. With two assists under his belt already, Gourde himself found the back of the net, taking a pass from Tye McGinn from behind the net and putting it past McIntyre to restore Syracuse’s two-goal lead.

And then, the floodgates opened. Bournival scored his second of the game and fifth of the playoffs from Erik Condra and Jake Dotchin with exactly four minutes remaining to make it 5-2. Just 3:13 later, Dumont tipped in a Taormina shot from the point to cap off a four-goal second period for the Crunch, who took a commanding 6-2 lead going into the third. That spelled the end of the night for McIntyre (24 saves on 30 shots) as he was pulled in favor of Malcolm Subban for the second time in as many games.

Syracuse entered the third period on cruise control. Limiting Providence’s opportunities and even adding one more goal to their total as Conacher added another power play tally to put the cherry on top of an old-fashioned pasting. For the first time in the series, Syracuse outshot Providence, 40-35.

With the win, the Crunch are now one win away from their second trip to the Calder Cup Finals, the first coming in 2013. For Providence, it’s back to the drawing board as they look to rebound with their season on the line in Game 5 tonight at 7:00 pm.