NHL

MALIK SITS OUT RANGERS’ VICTORY

Before and after No. 2 went to the rafters last night, Brian Leetch shook hand after hand extended to him by great old Rangers and awestruck new Rangers. All the while, Marek Malik sat for refusing to shake Tom Renney’s.

“Internal matter, and that’s all I’m going to say about that,” the coach said.

But The Post has learned the embittered veteran Ranger defenseman refused Renney’s handshake in the locker room after Tuesday night’s 4-0 victory over the Thrashers and was scratched from last night’s 2-1 shootout win over Atlanta for that reason.

Malik had stormed out of the arena in Edmonton on Jan. 5 after finding out he was a scratch, and has publicly indicated his bewilderment at intermittent lineup scratches. Scott Gomez laid into Malik for refusing Renney’s common congratulatory courtesy after a win in which Malik actually played one of his best games of the season. The defenseman met with the coach yesterday morning and was expected to again on Monday, when the Rangers reconvene after the All-Star break.

Making $2.5 million on the final year of his contract, Malik is available to other teams, but as an essentially seventh defenseman. He is hardly bait for either a top-four defenseman or power-play point man that the Rangers, who struggled last night to win for the fourth time in 12 games, obviously could use.

The Rangers, who honored Leetch, one of the greatest players in franchise history, didn’t play with much inspiration for most of the game.

The Rangers had many opportunities but failed to cash in 6:09 of first-period power-play time and fell behind 1-0 when Marian Hossa whisked in a puck that had squeezed behind Henrik Lundqvist on Atlanta’s first man-advantage. The Rangers, on a 2-for-38 power play drought over their past eight games, then lapsed into second-period catatonia.

“Like the fans, we were thinking, this is supposed to be a big night and we got a little frustrated,” Brendan Shanahan said of the team’s struggles.

The Rangers finally got back on track when rookie Nigel Dawes made a cycle play down the boards to Brandon Dubinsky, who got it back to Dawes cutting off the sideboards. Dawes found Michal Rozsival coming down from the point, and the defenseman beat goalie Johan Hedberg before he could come across to tie the game at 1 at the 8:58 mark in the third period.

Before the goal, the Rangers gradually were improving their play. But Hedberg – who watched teammate Ken Klee take a several-stitch cut on a deflected shot by Sean Avery when the puck had hit him flush in the eye – stopped a Scott Gomez scoring opportunity in overtime to force a shootout.

In the shootout, Lundqvist made Shanahan’s opening goal stand up, stopping Mark Recchi, and Slava Kozlov before forcing Hossa to shoot wide and clinch a Rangers victory.

“[Hedberg] got a piece of if [a pad save],” Shanahan said. “[It was] not one of those clean goals, but that was the kind of night it was. Everybody wanted a high-flying game after the ceremony, after the other night when everything bounced right.

“But tonight we won a game that you have to win when things aren’t going well.”

It was a game they had to win to get back into an eight-place tie with the Islanders, who lost 4-1 to the Bruins. Which is why, despite a sluggish effort, there were handshakes all around, except for one.

*

The Thrashers were playing without Ilya Kovalchuk, suspended for hitting Rozsival from behind during Tuesday night’s game.

SHOOTOUT Rangers 2 Thrashers 1

jay.greenberg@nypost.com