PITTSBURGH — Meet the new Rangers, same as the old Rangers.
With a revamped lineup, the Blueshirts took to the ice Friday night at Consol Energy Center with an attitude a lot closer to that of last season, a puck-dominating and in-your-face style that grinds teams down more than flies around them.
Yet, in what seemed like a game ripped from last season, it was Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury who neutralized the Blueshirts, making a season-high 34 saves and leading his first-place team to a 2-1 shootout victory.
“Absolutely this is a positive,” said Rangers captain Ryan Callahan, who missed on his patented shoulder-dip wrist shot as the Blueshirts’ final shooter in the skills competition. “Obviously you want two points at the end of the day no matter what the situation is, but this is a positive game for us moving forward.”
It was positive mostly because of the obvious increase in snarl of the 18-15-4 Rangers, especially when things got chippy in the third period and they stood tall, fought back from a 1-0 deficit to get it into overtime, and tied the Islanders with 40 points yet vaulted over them into seventh place in the Eastern Conference due to their game in hand.
“We were playing the style we want to play right now,” said Callahan, who cited Wednesday’s 6-1 win over the Penguins at the Garden as the beginning of a positive stylistic change. “We come in here tonight and back it up. We’ve put a couple together. We have that feeling in here that we can come in and do it every night. When we do that, we’re a tough team to beat.”
The Penguins (29-10-0) went up 1-0 just 30 seconds into the third period on a goal from Jussi Jokinen, playing in his first game for Pittsburgh since being acquired from the Hurricanes on Wednesday.
Then came the physical fireworks, which were highlighted by Michael Del Zotto catching James Neal square in the head with a spinning elbow. The Penguins sniper went down and did not return. Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said he was unsure of the severity of the injury and Neal will be reevaluated in the days to come.
“I knew I was going to get hit and I just tried to brace myself and reverse it,” said Del Zotto, who will more than likely get a call from the league today before the Rangers play the Hurricanes in Carolina tonight. “I’m not sure what happened, but I hope he’s OK.”
Minutes before that, lifelong agitator Matt Cooke skated through the Rangers’ crease and slashed Henrik Lundqvist in the right arm area, making the goalie none too pleased.
“I don’t know what he’s doing,” said Lundqvist, who was great in making 26 saves. “Seriously, it’s ridiculous. But it’s not the first time, right? It’s him being him.”
Lundqvist tweaked his left hamstring on Evgeni Malkin’s failed shootout attempt, but said he thinks it will be fine going forward
Rick Nash eventually scored on a screened wrist shot to tie it, and after a scoreless overtime, Jokinen got the only shootout goal needed, as Fleury’s dominance went past the 65-minute mark.
“We dominated the third,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said. “The reason we don’t win the game in the third is Fleury.”
Injured defenseman Marc Staal is on the trip with the Rangers, but is not doing anything on ice. He will be in Carolina Saturday night, where his brothers, Eric and Jordan, play. After that, Marc will return to New York and not accompany the team to the trip’s finale in Toronto on Monday. … Rookie forward J.T. Miller sat out his second game in a row while nursing an injured left wrist, saying “it bothered me to point where I didn’t want to hurt the team anymore by making mistakes.”
bcyrgalis@nypost.com