NHL

Tortorella to ‘pray’ for Rangers goals

John Tortorella, spiritual leader?

The irascible Rangers coach was asked yesterday after his team’s practice at the Garden what he needs to do in order to get his top forwards scoring more goals, and here was Tortorella’s response:

“Pray?” he said with an almost playful half-smile, half-shrug. “I don’t know what else to tell you. We’re going to keep on trying to play, pray, and hopefully something good happens then.”

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As the Rangers prepared for Game 5 against the Devils tonight at the Garden with their Eastern Conference finals series tied, the only contributions he has received from his forwards this series are two goals from rookie Chris Kreider, one goal in garbage time from Ruslan Fedotenko and one empty-netter each for Ryan Callahan and Artem Anisimov.

Tortorella pointed to his team’s lack of puck possession as the key to its feeble offensive output — just nine goals in four games.

“It has been a series so far of them having the puck a lot more than we have. That’s what we’re looking to try and change,” Tortorella said. “I think it’s tactical, execution, willingness — all of those things come into play in puck possession. It’s just a simple fact: We need to be better at it.”

Callahan said the Rangers need to do “a little bit of everything.”

“From our defensive zone, trying to limit time there and closing guys out, to getting pucks in away from Marty [Brodeur] and try to get a forecheck and hold on to some pucks and get some shots on net,” the captain said. “It’s all about raising our level and that will create more offense.”

* Rangers winger Brandon Prust is set to return to the lineup after serving a one-game suspension as a result of his elbow to the head of Devils defenseman Anton Volchenkov in Game 3’s 3-0 Rangers win.

“Prustie does everything for us,” Callahan said. “Killing penalties, he’s hard on the forecheck, which we need. We need to get our forecheck going a little bit here, so it’s going to be good to get him back.”

* Brandon Dubinsky and Mats Zuccarello skated with the Rangers in a full practice. There was no update on the status of either — Tortorella said he had not talked to the training staff — but Dubinsky said he’s “feeling better every day.”

Dubinsky had been out since Game 7 of the first round against the Senators with a right leg/foot injury, and Zuccarello has been out for seven weeks with a broken left wrist. The forwards participated in the spirited practice without any glaring restrictions.

* The Devils have employed some terrific defensemen in the history of their franchise, and Brodeur has seen almost all of them. So when asked yesterday how this season’s group stacks up, the goalie was reverential.

“It’s tough to compare other defensemen, and even from the fan’s point of view also to see how solid we were before,” Brodeur said, speaking of the days of Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer and Ken Daneyko. “But we have guys that are into it, are living something that they never lived before, and I think they’re taking up the challenge as good as anybody could have done.”