The Rangers are at the foot of one of the tallest mountains in sports, one with a summit that very few have reached and up a path that is littered with the discarded bodies of those even with the best intentions.
Last night at the Garden, the Blueshirts left their goalie stranded and grasped feebly as their season was pushed to the brink with a 2-1 loss to the Bruins in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinal, leaving them in a 3-0 series hole. All the ghosts of New York-Boston might be brewing, but if anything is clear at this point in the Rangers’ season, it’s that no longer can they live in a fantasyland where great players meet great expectations.
Even Lundqvist, in all of his glory through the first 40 minutes, can not hold up a bridge returning the Rangers to the conference finals, for a bridge with one pillar is not one that can withstand much pressure.
“The season is on the line, so you have to leave everything out there,” Lundqvist said following his 32-save performance. “Preparation and the effort have to be there, and we will see if it’s going to be enough.”
PHOTOS: RANGERS LOSE TO BRUINS
That would be tomorrow night, back at the Garden, where the Rangers had won their previous nine games dating back to the regular season, including all three in their first-round, seven-game win over the Capitals. They had also come into the game with a combined regular-season and postseason record of 18-0-0 when leading after two periods — a record that is now tarnished in the wake a 1-0 lead that went by the wayside.
“They are a good team at an important time of the year,” captain Ryan Callahan said. “We knew they were going to push.”
And push the Bruins did. After a second-period, tip-in goal from Taylor Pyatt, the Rangers were beat up and skated around by a Boston team not afraid to play everyone up and down their bench. It also didn’t help the Rangers were down to five defenseman as a result of Anton Stralman getting slammed into the backboards by Milan Lucic with just under seven minutes remaining in the second, as the Bruins’ fresh legs took over as they got 13 of the next 14 shots on goal.
“They’re a good team, they’ve got some depth,” Brain Boyle said. “We’re a good team too.”
Boyle finished the night 4-for-21 in the faceoff circle, with the most critical draw of the night coming as 3:47 remained in the third period. By then, the Bruins already had taken advantage of Lundqvist’s misplay of the puck behind his own net leading to the tying goal from Johnny Boychuk, and were tilting the ice drastically.
“We were in our zone way too long because I couldn’t win a freaking draw,” Boyle said. “I could have contributed more, and that’s infuriating.”
Coach John Tortorella kept Boyle on the bench and sent out Derick Brassard to take the defensive-zone faceoff against Boston fourth-liner Shawn Thornton, who won it cleanly. A touch here, a touch there, and it came to a head with a deflected shot bouncing off of Lundqvist’s mask, falling behind him near the goal line, and getting slapped in by Daniel Paille for the game-winner.
“That’s where the game has been decided, in front of the net,” Lundqvist said. “They’re doing a good job, but we have to regroup here.”
Regroup, win one game, go from there. It’s all been said before on the steep climb to ruin, with the situation now as dire as it gets.
“It’s the biggest game of the year,” Boyle said, “and it just wasn’t enough.”
bcyrgalis@nypost.com