MONTREAL — The Rangers’ night in the House of Horrors was, well, horrifying.
What else is new?
The Blueshirts’ 3-0 defeat to the Canadiens on Saturday night represented the club’s seventh straight here in regulation over the last four seasons. They have been outscored by a stupefying 25-3 and have been blanked by Carey Price four straight times over that span.
The Rangers are 0-7-1 in their last eight here, last winning on Mar. 17, 2009 in what was John Tortorella’s 10th game behind the team’s bench.
In addition, the shutout was the second in a row on this trip following Thursday’s 3-0 defeat in Ottawa, the club’s goal drought stretching to 127:47 and counting entering Monday’s match at the Garden against the Jets.
More critically, the Rangers have lost seven of their last 10 (3-6-1) and hold the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot by the narrowest of margins. The Blueshirts are tied in points with the Islanders but have 14 games remaining, one more than the ninth-place team. Tenth-place Carolina is one point behind while holding a game in hand on the Rangers.
The Rangers are 4-12-1 against the seven teams they trail in the East, hardly a harbinger of success around the bend.
The Blueshirts, who were hoping for a fast start, could not have fallen behind much faster than they did. Michael Ryder gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at the 0:47 mark, pouncing on a ricochet of his own dump-in off the outside of the Rangers’ net to beat a startled Martin Biron from the slot while Steve Eminger was late to cover.
The Rangers steadied, however, and carried the play for most of the remainder of the period, coming through the neutral zone well and winning their share of puck battles deep in the Montreal zone. But they could not beat Price, who entered with three straight shutouts on home ice against the Blueshirts.
Marian Gaborik opened on the fourth line with Kris Newbury and Taylor Pyatt but moved up to the unit with Brad Richards and Mats Zuccarello after two turns through the rotation, switching places with Chris Kreider and remaining in a top-six role the remainder of the match.
Gaborik, who had scored one goal in his last 11 games and two in the previous 20, had a glorious chance, bursting in alone on Price with 3:30 remaining and the Rangers on a power play, but the goaltender denied the wrist shot.
Derek Stepan had a wide open net soon after while at the left porch, but could not get a rolling puck on net, instead chipping it wide and over the top.
The Canadiens not only killed off that power play — the only one of the period — but countered when P.K. Subban was released from the box in trapping the Rangers in the Montreal end.
Subban came down the left side to the middle while Tomas Plekanec carried to the right circle before ripping one past Biron at 18:11 for a 2-0 lead the Habs carried into the first intermission despite the Rangers’ 17-10 advantage in shots and 29-14 edge in attempts.
The Canadiens picked up the pace in the second, repeatedly crashing the Rangers’ and Biron’s net. This paid off for a power-play goal at 11:02 when Brendan Gallagher eluded Michael Del Zotto at the left porch to pitch an angled drive over Biron for a 3-0 lead.
Carl Hagelin had failed to chip Del Zotto’s relay out of the zone just prior to the goal and thus earned a tongue-lashing from Tortorella, who then sat the winger through a couple of shifts while moving Kreider up to the line with Rick Nash and Stepan.
Nash, who went through the first two periods without a shot after being held without one in Ottawa on Thursday for the first time this season, was in the penalty box serving a goaltender interference minor.
Hagelin was reinstated upon the start of the third period, when Tortorella continued to mix things up with his line combinations to absolutely no avail.
larry.brooks@nypost.com