NHL

Second straight shutout loss for Rangers

It was a show about nothing.

No Marian Gaborik on the ice for the final minute of what was at the time a 1-0 game the other way with Henrik Lundqvist pulled for the extra attacker, no goals a second straight game at the Garden from the Rangers, no visible energy or desperation from the home side, and no answers from the head coach why the Blueshirts were so markedly outworked.

“I can’t explain it; I’m not in [the players’] heads,” coach John Tortorella said after the Rangers’ 2-0 empty-net-aided defeat to Ottawa extended the team’s scoreless streak to 144:23, back to the first minute of the third period Saturday in Boston. “I don’t understand it.”

Tortorella had spent two days warning his team against a letdown in the wake of Tuesday’s up-tempo, emotion-fueled 1-0 shootout loss to the Devils. His warnings went unheeded. The injury-depleted Senators, losers of five straight in which they had been outscored 22-5, took it to the Blueshirts from the opening draw.

“I guess they weren’t listening,” said Tortorella. “[Why]? I don’t know.”

Gaborik, who has gone scoreless in the last four while getting just two goals in his last 10 games, said he spent the final minute on the bench because it had been his mistake in the defensive zone that allowed Chris Campoli to break a scoreless tie with 1:14 to go in regulation off a feed from Alex Kovalev.

“I totally lost my man; it was Kovalev,” said Gaborik. “It was my mistake. I should have been right there. It cost us the game.”

It was an interesting call by Tortorella to bench Gaborik for the second time in four games, nearly as interesting as choosing to send out a combination of Gaborik, Artem Anisimov and Christopher Higgins that might never been together before, with 1:30 to go in a tie game. But, as Gaborik said, it was his coverage mistake after Mike Fisher rode Anisimov off the puck. And the players didn’t listen.

Rookie Mike Brodeur, a distant relative of Martin Brodeur, who had blanked the Blueshirts on Monday, turned in the shutout in just his second NHL start. He was barely tested.

The Rangers, who have scored four goals in their last four games, are in St. Louis tomorrow night. Perhaps the Blues will bring Richard Brodeur out of retirement.

Henrik Lundqvist, whose career-best shutout streak of 127:30 ended when beaten by Campoli to the stick side, was fuming after the goal, turning to smash his stick over the crossbar.

“Four goals in four games is obviously not enough. We need to step up offensively,” said The King, who has surrendered two goals or fewer in 16 of his last 19 starts. “We played well defensively, but you’re not going to win games if you can’t score, that’s pretty simple.

“I’m so mad right now.”

The Senators got in on the forecheck and hemmed in the Rangers, who have lost three of their last four (1-1-2) and four of their last eight (4-1-3). They stopped the Blueshirts from gaining traction through the neutral zone. Neither team was capable of completing consecutive passes.

“They were able to win about every one-on-one battle at the start,” said Michael Del Zotto.

It was the start that led to plenty of nothing.

larry.brooks@nypost.com