Petr Prucha exhaled and threw his head back in exasperation, looking for answers from above.
The improbable wrist shot he had just fired at the end of an athletic play seemed destined for the upper left corner of the net until it was gloved by a splayed-out Martin Brodeur during the second period of the Rangers’ 1-0 overtime victory over the Devils on Sunday.
“I was just so surprised that he caught it,” Prucha recalled yesterday after practice in Greenburgh. “I couldn’t believe that he expected the shot to go there because even I didn’t know I’d get the shot off.”
Prucha’s disbelief was shared by the Garden faithful, with both players and fans pulling their hair out over the Rangers’ well-documented offensive struggles.
Despite Prucha’s plea, the solution to the team’s scoring woes won’t come from above but from the men in the red, white and blue sweaters. They’ll have a chance to build on Sunday’s victory, which was clinched by a Brendan Shanahan overtime goal, tonight at Washington (11-17-1-1).
“I’d be more worried if we were winning all our games 6-5 rather than 1-0,” Shanahan said. “If you look at the playoffs, the games resemble more of how we’re playing now. To be comfortable playing in 1-0 games should be good. As long as we’re outscoring the team we play every night, that’s all I care about.”
A jovial Prucha explained between jokes with Jaromir Jagr in Czech: “We are focusing on the defensive part of our game. We cannot let [the opposition] score against us. [Goalie] Hank [Lundqvist] is unbelievable, so if we score one or two goals we have a chance to win.”
Sounds good. But scoring even that many goals has become difficult for the Rangers (16-12-0-2). They have five goals total in their last four games and needed an overtime period to get that many. They are dead last in the NHL in scoring at 2.13 goals per game.
Though many in the organization are nonplussed by that statistic, the lack of production with a man advantage is another matter.
“We have concern about our power play,” coach Tom Renney said. “I don’t think it’s being overblown at all. We just have to move the puck quickly and be very aggressive.”
The Rangers had trouble handling passes on the power play Sunday, but Renney said there is no plan to alter the unit’s personnel.
“I’ll give it another game and see,” Renney said. “When [Sean Avery, wrist] returns, we’ll see how that affects the power play.”
Avery skated again yesterday but his return from surgery is at least a week away.
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Forward Greg Moore was recalled from Hartford yesterday as a backup plan for Ryan Callahan, who had tweaked his knee but is expected to play tonight. Defenseman Michal Rozsival did not practice to rest his sore shoulder but will play . . . Renney on the possibility of Nigel Dawes being recalled from Hartford: “It’s only a matter of time.”
RANGERS at CAPITALS Tonight 7:00 – FSN
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dtomasino@nypost.com