NHL

Rangers lose to Maple Leafs, win streak ends at 5

At first glance, last night’s Rangers’ 4-2 defeat to the Maple Leafs at the Garden can be attributed to an especially slow start against an especially fast team.

But a closer look reveals that questionable third-period coaching by John Tortorella contributed at least equally to the end of the Rangers’ five-game winning streak overall and seven-game winning streak on Broadway during which Michael Sauer was likely concussed on a thunderous Dion Phaneuf blow with 4:42 to go in the match.

The Rangers were one or two steps and three goals behind by the midway point of the game in giving the Maple Leafs all the time and space in the world with which to exploit their speed and skill. The Rangers — who have been outscored by an aggregate 5-1 over the first periods of their last four games — were indecisive and ineffective against the only team to which they’ve lost at home in regulation, now twice.

“The simple answer is that we weren’t ready to match their intensity or their speed at the start, though I can’t tell you why because we knew what kind of a team they have,” said Dan Girardi. “I know we were all ready, we had a good skate and prepared ourselves for the game, but we backed off of them too much and gave them too much respect.

“There were gaps all over the ice.”

PHOTOS: LEAFS BEAT RANGERS

The Rangers, though, turned it around midway through the second with a strong shift down low from the Sean Avery-Brandon Dubinsky-Brandon Prust line that had gotten only three brief turns in the first. Keyed by that shift, the Rangers began to work the puck below the goal line and apply pressure against the Toronto defense.

That unit took a regular turn for the remainder of the period that ended with the Rangers having come back to within 3-2 on a pair of goals within 1:32, the first on an Artem Anisimov drive from the slot at 13:00 after Avery had gotten the puck in deep and Prust did good work behind the net, the second on a Marian Gaborik five-on-three power play slam dunk at 14:32 off a gorgeous feed from Derek Stepan.

“The first half of the game it looked like we had a tough time getting going,” said Henrik Lundqvist. “But then we got energy, especially after the first goal and we had the momentum.”

The Rangers generate momentum off their forecheck and by rolling lines. That’s the club’s strength. But for whatever reason, that doesn’t appear to coincide with Tortorella’s vision of this team.

For the coach abandoned the Dubinsky unit in the third, giving the line just two shifts worth a total of 1:20, the last one ending before the 7:00 mark of the period.

Tortorella instead heaped time on his top two lines in third, with lines centered by either Brad Richards (6:58) or Stepan (6:01) featuring wingers Anisimov, Callahan, Gaborik and Ruslan Fedotenko getting 12:59 of the 15:52 of even-strength play in the period.

And though it’s true that the Rangers did have chances to tie against Jonas Gustavsson, there was no carryover of momentum from the second. There was no consistent or persistent forecheck or down-low pressure.

Instead, there was the team’s third defeat in the last 15 games (12-3), defeat sealed by a couple of late power play failures.

“We needed to be better at the start,” said Callahan.

And the coach needed to be better at the end.