NHL

A-very happy return as Rangers roll

They have won four straight since an opening-night defeat, but the Rangers won’t make the same mistake they did last year when they got way too full of themselves after bolting to a 10-2-1 start.

“I’m happy where we are, but a pat on the back is only a couple of feet away from a kick in the butt,” Steve Valiquette said after shutting out the Ducks 3-0 at the Garden yesterday in his season debut. “So much goes into getting a shutout that it’s not a goaltending record, it’s a team record.”

The record is 4-1 . . . and 1-0 with Sean Avery. The Fashionable One not only brought his customary energy to the party after missing the first four matches with a sprained right knee, he helped set up the Blueshirts’ first two goals after a scoreless opening 40 minutes.

Avery, who skated with Artem Anisimov and Enver Lisin, forced young defenseman Brendan Mikkelson into a turnover off a hard forecheck before drawing a penalty going to the net on the ensuing scrum. Ales Kotalik broke the deadlock with a power-play goal at 2:14 of the third period.

Then, while getting power-play time himself, Avery drew Scott Niedermayer out of position while Anisimov converted Vinny Prospal’s feed for his first NHL goal at 14:22 for a 2-0 lead. Dan Girardi’s shorthanded empty-netter sealed it.

What’s more, while drawing the ire of his opponents because that’s who he is, Avery kept his focus on the task at hand. Notably, not a word passed between Avery and referees Greg Kimmerly and Brad Watson. There were no incidents; only productive hockey.

“Sean played well, he forechecked, he was effective,” said head coach John Tortorella, who gave Avery 10:42 of ice time. “Little by little, I’m sure he wants more. Everybody wants more ice time.

“But I have to worry about the flow of the team. And I think we have a pretty good thing going as far as a couple of our top lines playing well.”

Tortorella generally doesn’t match lines, but he looked like the mid-1990’s Jacques Lemaire behind the bench during the first period, furiously matching Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle in trying to get the Brandon Dubinsky-Marian Gaborik-Prospal unit on against the Ducks’ Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry-Bobby Ryan top line.

“You don’t want to be stubborn about not being outmatched to the point that you forget about your team,” Tortorella said after the chess match waned over the final 40 minutes.

The Rangers were strong in the neutral zone against Anaheim, limiting the Ducks’ chances to a precious few. Michal Rozsival played his finest game, moving the puck quickly, after being benched for the final 31 minutes in Washington on Thursday. Message received. The defense rarely gambled.

Valiquette, who faced only one shot in the first period, made his best save against Todd Marchant with 4:45 remaining in the second, using his blocker after Marc Staal’s errant pass out of the left corner wound up on the Anaheim center’s stick in the high slot.

“It’s my job and it’s Hank’s [Henrik Lundqvist’s] job to put us in position to win,” said Valiquette, beaming because his four-month-old son, Dalton, was at the match. “That’s what we have to do.”

larry.brooks@nypost.com