NHL

Weaver’s unexpected goal halts Rangers’ comeback

Maybe the Rangers didn’t quite deserve to lose 4-3 to the Panthers at the Garden last night in the club’s final game before the All-Star break, but there is no doubt that the Blueshirts deserve to go into the break proud of themselves and their work over the first 52 games.

“We’re obviously disappointed to lose, but we’re always there,” said Marc Staal, who with Henrik Lundqvist will represent the Rangers in Sunday’s contest in Raleigh. “This is a complete 180 from last year. We’re always ready to play.”

The Rangers limited Florida to four shots in the first period and one in the third. Nevertheless, they were beaten when that one final shot from 55 feet away off the stick of Mike Weaver hit Artem Anisimov in the back, popped high in the air over Lundqvist’s right shoulder and landed in the net at 11:41 of the third after the Blueshirts had stormed back to tie from 3-1 down after two periods.

“We’re all ticked off that we lost, but in a couple of hours that will wear off and we’ll be happy with what we’ve shown as a team,” said Sean Avery, who played yet another imposing game and got 21:01, most among the forwards, to show for it. “We might not have played our best hockey all night, but we never stopped working and never stopped believing we’d win.

“That’s pretty much been our trademark all year.”

The Black-and-Blueshirts desperately need the time off they will get before their next practice on Monday and their next game on Tuesday, at home against the Penguins. The spirit’s been willing but the flesh has been bruised. This also has been a brutal stretch leading into the break in which the Blueshirts played seven games in 11 days and five in the last seven, depleted their allowance.

“You get greedy. You want the win. You want to be 4-1 instead of 3-2 [in the final five games], and I thought we played well enough to squeeze out a point, but the key for me was that there was no give in our team,” coach John Tortorella said. “We talked about it between the second and third, and the team went out and never gave up.

“I hope that keeps resonating because over the first 52 games [29-20-3], we’ve played the right way.”

Down 3-1 after two, the first Florida goal glancing in off Anisimov’s stick, the Rangers scored twice within 1:51 to tie when Michael Sauer’s wrist shot went in off Brandon Prust’s skate at 1:14 before Brian Boyle went to the net on the power play to bury a Marian Gaborik rebound at 3:05.

But despite carrying all the momentum, the Rangers were unable to beat Tomas Vokoun despite repeated forays to the front of the net. And when the Panthers scored their fluky one — just as the Rangers, remember, scored a fluky one in Washington on Monday when a rebound bounced in off Gaborik’s glove while he was spinning away from the net — the Blueshirts fell short.

The Rangers fell short in this one, but really, left everything they had on the rink. The wounded hockey warriors will begin to return — Ryan Callahan and, surprisingly, Vinny Prospal have been activated from injured reserve — and the Rangers will someday be whole again.

“We’ll get some guys back and get back to work,” said Gaborik, gritty again. “We have to be ready because it’s going to get tougher.”

larry.brooks@nypost.com