NHL

Fleury has been far from Penguins weakness so far

Marc-Andre Fleury was supposed to be the Penguins’ Achilles heel, their biggest weakness, the one area the Rangers could exploit.

Instead, he’s been a major strength — and Monday night the 29-year-old Canadian was arguably the best player on the ice.

Fleury registered his second straight shutout as Pittsburgh took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals at the Garden courtesy of a 2-0 blanking of the Blueshirts, the first time the Rangers have been shutout in back-to-back playoff contests since the Stanley Cup finals way back in 1937.

“We believe in him and with every game we see him get more and more comfortable,” said Penguins center Sidney Crosby, who snapped his 13-game postseason goal-less drought. “That’s contagious and I think it goes right through the team. To see your goaltender confident like that, on top of his game, you see everyone’s calm.”

Fleury was in control from start to finish, making 35 saves 24 hours after he came up with 22 saves in a Game 2 victory in Pittsburgh. His teammates put him in difficult positions, giving the Rangers five power-play opportunities, and Fleury was up to the task each time.

He allowed few rebounds and was a fortunate recipient of the Rangers hitting three posts. The Rangers best chance came late in the second period, when forward Mats Zuccarello hit the crossbar and the puck rolled along the goal-line but never crossed it. Fleury showed his appreciation by rubbing the iron.

“I don’t think there was any question he was the best player on the ice tonight,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said of Fleury, who has a franchise-leading eight playoff shutouts in his career. “He was strong all through the game, certainly the penalty kill. Our penalty kill shut ’em out tonight, but it was mostly Marc-Andre in the net.

“He was great and really the difference in the game.”

Fleury has been a question mark for the Penguins for a while. He was shaky in the playoffs last year, losing his starting position to Tomas Vokoun, and had a rough opening series against the Blue Jackets this year. He doesn’t pay attention to the criticism, he said, but Bylsma has grown weary of it.

“I’ve won a lot of hockey games with Marc-Andre Fleury in net in the regular season. This team has won a Stanley Cup with him in net,” Bylsma said. “I’ve seen him win a lot of hockey games. There are questions, I don’t know when they started for Marc. They’ve been asking these questions for a long time and he’s done nothing but answer these questions, and that’s what he’s been doing with his play.”