NHL

Mentally tough Rangers ‘headed’ in right direction

When John Tortorella referred to the Rangers’ “grit” following yesterday’s 5-3 victory at the Garden over the Penguins, the coach specifically pointed to his club’s “mental grit.”

He then was asked whether he believes that aspect of the team’s game had wavered through the six-game (0-5-1) losing streak it stopped after climbing out of a 2-0 hole just 5:06 into the match.

“I think it’s been there for the most part, but we lost it on certain shifts here and there and it ends up a goal against,” Tortorella said. “At certain times it ended up burying us.”

Lapses buried the Blueshirts because they had scored two or fewer in each of the final four defeats in the streak (all in regulation). Indeed, the Rangers had scored two or fewer in 16 of their previous 19 games overall.

“I think we would be feeling really good about ourselves if there had been one extra goal or one extra save at the right time in those games,” said Henrik Lundqvist, who ended a personal four-game (0-3-1) skid. “I believe we can beat anybody, but also that we can lose to anybody.

“If we get that one extra goal, if we get that one extra save, if our specialty teams play the way they did today, then we can be better than that.”

* The power play clicked for a season-best three goals on six advantages.

The penalty killers snuffed five of six, including a pair of double-minors, one to Brandon Dubinsky for a hold and then a high stick on the same shift in the first period when the score was 2-2, the second a four-minute minor for high sticking to Michael Sauer in the third soon after the Penguins had scored to pull within 5-3.

“That can’t happen with Michael Sauer,” Tortorella said of the defenseman who inadvertently cut Tyler Kennedy on the play. “I know he didn’t mean it, but we’ve talked about lifting the stick all year.”

* The victory enabled the Rangers to maintain their spot in seventh place, but they are only two points up on eighth and just six points clear of the 10th-place Sabres, who hold four games in hand.

“We have a long uphill battle to get where we want to be,” Brandon Dubinsky told The Post. “In the first place, we want to be back in the playoffs, but we’ve talked about not wanting to crawl in and have to depend on other teams the last couple of weeks the way it’s been the last few years.

“We want to put ourselves in the position where we’re in with two weeks to go and then fighting for as high a seed as we can get and home-ice advantage. To do that, we need to go on a spurt over the next 10 games.

“We’re not looking at this as a one-game thing. We need to build off it.”

* Wojtek Wolski suffered a muscle pull in the area of his rib cage on a late first-period rush and was able to take just two shifts in the second before leaving for good 5:45 into the period. Tortorella said he did not know the extent of the injury.

Marian Gaborik’s scoreless streak reached seven games even as he hit the outside of the net on a backhand after the Penguins had pulled goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury . … Brian Boyle scored for the first time in six games. … Sean Avery had another strong game but failed to score for the 15th straight match. … Mats Zuccarello had jump and the puck on his stick through 12:57, but his drought reached 10 games.

* Rangers were a man up for 9:43 and a man down for 11:12, leaving 39:05 of even-strength play. That’s a large part of the explanation why Matt Gilroy got only 7:49 and Steve Eminger, who dressed for the first time following five straight healthy scratches, got only 4:08. Eminger played three shifts in the first and two in the second before being nailed to the bench in the third. …

Blueshirts are off until Thursday, when the Kings come to the Garden for the Rangers’ first of three in four days prior to their match in New Jersey on Friday and a home game against the Flyers next Sunday afternoon.