NHL

RENNEY SMARTLY STICKS WITH LUNDQVIST

A COUPLE good turns from Wade Dubielewicz deserved one more, Ted Nolan believed.

Rick DiPietro, 15 years and $67.5 million worth of franchise goaltending, was back from burying his grandmother and fully practiced Wednesday. But the Islanders coach tried again to exhume his fast fading postseason chances with Dubielewicz, the scourge of the struggling Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers in a 4-3 shootout victory Tuesday night.

DiPietro hadn’t been great Saturday in a loss to the Flyers, much like Lundqvist, who came into last night with a 3.62 goals against average and an .889 save percentage since Dec. 3, hasn’t been either.

But with a postseason place still very much in doubt, Tom Renney, given the chance last night to play the recently-steadier Stephen Valiquette, declined for good reason: The playoffs really aren’t worth making if Lundqvist goes into them playing like he has been.

“Combination of both,” said the Rangers coach, asked before the game whether he was using the goalie who gave his team the best chance to win last night or was trying to prepare his best goalie to win something ultimately bigger. “I have to make sure [Lundqvist] understands he will get these kinds of tests.”

The Islander Ice Girls, who provoked the unmoved Lundqvist a year ago with their squeegees during commercial breaks, last night worked around him. So, basically did the Islanders, who got a second-period three-carom goal by Sean Bergenheim after Sean Avery fell asleep along the boards, but mustered few other tests of consequence.

The Rangers, shooting badly around empty nets, nevertheless got a Brendan Shanahan breakaway goal, an Avery redirection, then with Dubielewicz down and looking lost, a Scott Gomez tip before Avery’s empty-netter.

They won 4-1 to move within three points of the Devils and a first-round home-ice advantage. That’s a real goal but a secondary one compared with getting Lundqvist, who was yanked Sunday against the Flyers after a three-goal first period, playing again like someone whom the Rangers will be happy to pay $6.875 million for the next six years.

That probably was almost two million more a season than it should have taken to get signed a goalie who had no desire to play anywhere else and one playoff series win, in what is not yet three full NHL seasons. Obviously, this is a big goalie with a big upside, but now that the Rangers have married him, it’s not so obvious how he is going to handle successes and the inevitable periods between them.

“I think my timing was better tonight,” Lundqvist said. “When you face more shots and feel good maybe you get a little more patient, and it’s easier to be in the right place at the right time.

“I was disappointed [Tuesday night], but I talked to Benny [goaltending coach Allaire] and there were a lot of good things. Tonight was four goals in two games all on deflections, and that’s never an excuse, but you can’t beat yourself (up) too much. Sometimes you have to look at the whole picture.”

That’s been Renney’s point as he has steadfastly argued that Lundqvist’s game didn’t begin to meander until his team’s did. Of course, the coach said Lundqvist was the key during four second-period penalty kills that “elevated the bench,” but Renney can have it both ways because that’s the way the game works.

Teams are at their confident best when their franchise goalie is, too, which is why Nolan made a big mistake last night. It’s why Renney, who knows he is going nowhere this spring without a fully confident Lundqvist, did not.

jay.greenberg@nypost.com