PITTSBURGH — First, The Post has learned, Erik Christensen apologized in the morning to his teammates for telling Edmonton TV and The Post that he believed Sean Avery had sucker-punched Ladislav Smid on Sunday at the Garden, and then Christensen wound up on a line with Avery last night that did some good things in limited ice time.
Christensen opened the match between Marian Gaborik and Alex Frolov, which is the combination that recorded five goals while going plus five as a line in the 8-2 triumph over the Oilers.
The center had registered three assists in the match. But before last night’s second period reached the halfway mark, Christensen had swapped spots with Derek Stepan, who opened between Avery and Todd White on the fourth line.
Christensen scored on a wrist shot at 10:16 of the second during a line change on which he was on with Brandon Prust and Ruslan Fedotenko.
“I didn’t think Erik was dead-on and I liked the way Step was going,” head coach John Tortorella said after the Blueshirts’ 3-2 OT victory over the Penguins. “I thought Erik, Aves and Whitey gave us some good shifts, and I liked the way Step looked so we stayed with it.
“One of the things I was trying to do was to get Gabby away from [physical defenseman Brooks] Orpik, so I was moving him around.”
With the last change, Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma could dictate the matches, and was able to get either Sidney Crosby or Evgeny Malkin on against Christensen whenever he so chose.
Tortorella likely went to Stepan as much for checking purposes as anything else.
“Where we go from here I don’t know,” said Tortorella, whose club faces the Bruins at the Garden tomorrow night.
Neither the coach nor Christensen would discuss anything related to the Avery-Smid incident other than one saying before the other, “It’s been taken care of internally.”
Avery, who played 12 shifts for 7:35, was riding an exercise bike following the match and did not make himself available to discuss Sunday’s events and their aftermath.
Brandon Dubinsky was fined an undisclosed amount for grabbing Colin Fraser from the bench during the fracas that followed Avery’s punch.
***With Derek Boogaard unable to play because of a mangled right hand coming out of a pair of fights on Sunday against Steve MacIntyre, the projected bout against Pittsburgh heavyweight Deryk Engelland was put on hold.
So who else than Ryan Callahan and Mike Comrie staged the main event, the pair dropping their gloves and exchanging punches off a faceoff at 12:55 of the first period.
“He was asking me, he wanted to go, and we were flat at the time, so I thought it was a good time for it,” said Callahan, who won a decision. “I said, “If you want to do it, why not?'”
***Prust and Brian Boyle excelled as a penalty-kill pair, with Prust exceptional at dogging and hemming in the Penguins at their end of the ice. Tortorella, whose team faced seven Pittsburgh power plays while getting none, opened his press briefing by saying, “Don’t ask me about the referees, please.” A few moments later the coach mused that the Rangers had been shorthanded for 9:00 in the third (It was 7:08), before adding, “Don’t ask me about the refs.”
No one asked him about Kyle Rehman or Dan O’Halloran, though it’s not known whether NHL VP Colin Campbell has written any e-mails about the pair.
**Defenseman Dylan McIlrath, who was selected 10th overall by the Blueshirts in this year’s Entry Draft, will come to New York to have his knee checked by Rangers’ physicians after suffering an injury late in Saturday night’s game playing for WHL Moose Jaw.
**Tortorella, regarding the Rangers’ lack of urgency through the first period: “No disrespect to Edmonton, but [the Penguins] are a much better team than Edmonton, and we looked like we were playing Edmonton in the first period. We couldn’t play that way [and win].” No disrespect.