NHL

RANGERS READY TO ATTACK

It’s all about attacking; attacking the defense, attacking the net. Sometimes it even includes attacking the opposition’s best players. That’s been known to happen in the NHL playoffs.

Two days after making life easy for the Penguins in a 2-0, Game 2 defeat in Pittsburgh that sent the Rangers into the Garden tonight needing a victory to avoid falling into a 3-0 ditch in their best-of-7 Eastern Conference semifinal series, the Blueshirts were vowing to apply the same kind of pressure on this opponent as they did on the Devils in the first round.

That’s one of the reasons Tom Renney has decided to insert Ryan Hollweg into tonight’s lineup in place of Petr Prucha. Hollweg, who played all five games against New Jersey, had been a healthy scratch in the opening two games at Pittsburgh.

Renney would not confirm the change, but Prucha, who got into his first playoff game Sunday, remained on the ice for a hard skate with presumed scratches Colton Orr, Jason Strudwick and Marek Malik following this morning’s optional practice. That’s a sure sign he is not in tonight’s plans.

“If I go with Ryan, it will be because of the energy and forecheck that he brings,” Renney said. “He exemplifies the style of play we need to embrace in order to get a win here.”

After taking a 3-0 lead early in the second period of Game 1, the Rangers go into tonight having been outscored 7-1 over the past 96:33 of hockey. That includes the final six seconds of the first period of Sunday’s game in which Sean Avery took a couple of neutral-zone hacks at Sidney Crosby’s stick and/or glove.

No penalty was called on the play, which occurred in plain sight. No issue was made of the play following the game. Crosby was not impaired the remainder of the game. But yesterday, Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien implied the play was in the league’s hands.

If it was, the NHL washed its hands of the matter. Avery, who declined comment, was not aware that an issue had been made of the play. The NHL did not contact the Rangers.

Therrien also suggested he had an issue with the way Brendan Shanahan sought to obscure goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury during a first-period power play in which Shanahan went to the front and raised his stick and arms in front while keeping his back (legally) to the net.

The Pittsburgh coach, who declared, “Enough is enough,” on Saturday in decrying any suggestion that Crosby might go down a tad easily, said he’d spoken to game officials between periods and was told that if Shanahan were in the crease while a goal was scored, it would be waved off.

Renney chuckled – sort of – when that subject was raised following this morning’s skate.

“You’re allowed to [talk to the refs]? Good for [Therrien]; I didn’t know you were allowed to do that,” he said, facetiously. “Look, it’s playoff hockey; this is where it gets fun.

“Whatever he wants to try, that’s his prerogative. I don’t really care.”

Renney cares about the Rangers getting both pucks and players to the net against Fleury the way they did in the first round against Martin Brodeur. So do his athletes.

“There’s a jump in prices from one round to the next,” Brandon Dubinsky said. “You have to pay a higher price to get where you want to go.

“It’s not so much what we have to do to get Pittsburgh off their game, it’s what we have to do to play our game. We have to get pucks deep. We have to get to the net. We have to do that a lot more than we’ve done so far.

“We have to force their defense to make plays under pressure. So far, we’ve kind of made it easy for them. We have to attack.”