He was relentless from his first shift to his last at the Garden on Wednesday, nothing less, and that was nothing less than is ever expected of and from Ryan Callahan.
And though Game 5 became a 5-3 defeat that leaves his team one misstep away from extinction, it simply served as yet another example of the Rangers’ captain leading by example.
“I felt good, and I thought as a line with Artie [Anisimov] and Dubi [Brandon Dubinsky] we were strong on the forecheck and were holding onto pucks the way we have to,” said Callahan, who crashed the net to score on a deflection off his skate early in the second period and recorded a game-high six hits in 20:01. “We have to continue to do that.”
Callahan laughed when asked if he would issue a guarantee for this Game 6 the way a captain named Mark Messier had in 1994. He laughed again when asked if he had sought No. 11’s counsel on such matters, pausing to say “No,” before leaving the mass of cameras, microphones, recorders and notebooks behind at his locker.
“We say stuff, but we keep it in the room,” said this captain of the Blue Wall of Silence that has enveloped the Rangers under coach John Tortorella’s direction. “We have a lot of leadership in the room and a lot of character.
“We’ve been resilient all year and have come back in situations, which is what we have to do [in Game 6].”
The focus a few days ago was on Callahan’s lack of production. But with an empty-netter in Game 3 and then the goal on Wednesday, Callahan’s two goals against the Devils are second among forwards in the Eastern finals to Chris Kreider’s three goals. His 14 shots are second to Marian Gaborik’s 15 in the Battle of the Hudson. He leads the team with 19 hits in the series.
He leads the team, period.
“He did all he needed to do as a leader to try to get us a win right to the bitter end,” is how Tortorella evaluated the captain’s performance after Game 5 had ended. “And he’ll do the same the next game.”
The Rangers will need their best game of the playoffs tonight in order to make necessary Game 7 at the Garden on Sunday. They’ll need their best game of the season.
“I think we’re going to have to; they’re going to be a desperate team, too, to try and close it out on their home ice,” Callahan said. “We need to find that next level, that extra desperation.
“We’re going to have to bring our full 60 minutes and be at the top of our game to be successful and we realize that in here,” the captain said. “This is what you play for, elimination game in the playoffs, the conference finals.
“This is when players step up and have big games.”
larry.brooks@nypost.com