Rangers top Devils in overtime on fourth-liner Sam Carrick's goal

This was unusual.

A small group of reporters crowded around Sam Carrick, firing questions at the fourth-line center instead of his more celebrated teammates.

But he didn’t mind. Not after scoring his first NHL game-winning goal a few minutes earlier.

“I think I might have blacked out, to be honest,” Carrick said after scoring with 2:12 left in overtime to give the Rangers a 3-2 win over the Devils at the Garden.

Carrick’s third goal of the season, a one-timer off a feed from Reilly Smith, capped a day that began with coach Peter Laviolette announcing another reconfiguration to the lineup.

The moves were prompted by the upper-body injury suffered by Filip Chytil late in the second period of Tuesday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Stars.

Arthur Kaliyev, whom the Rangers claimed off waivers from the Kings on Monday, drew into the lineup and skated on the third line with center Jonny Brodzinski and Brett Berard. Will Cuylle was promoted to the second line with Mika Zibanejad and Smith. Matt Rempe was on the fourth line with Carrick and Adam Edstrom.

Carrick believes the Rangers (19-20-2) are beginning to reestablish their identity.

“We want to be a really tough team to play against and we kind of got away from that a little bit,” he said. “We’re taking steps in the right direction.”

The Rangers have gone 3-1-1 in the last five games and earned seven of a possible 10 points. The Devils fell to 25-15-4.

Over the course of 62:48, the home crowd saw arguably the most complete effort of the season from the Rangers, who finished with advantages in shots on goal (33-23) and attempted shots (63-62).

“It’s probably one of our better games since the start of the year,” Smith said.

And it started right from the opening puck drop. The Rangers led 1-0 after the opening 20 minutes, even if it took a bit of good fortune.

It appeared as if the Devils took a 1-0 lead 5:50 into the game, but replays showed that Luke Hughes’ shot from the left circle hit the crossbar but never crossed the goal line.

For a team that has spent much of this season trying to play catch-up, the waved-off goal and Adam Fox’s power-play strike at 12:05 of the first period were departures from the ordinary.

With Kurtis MacDermid serving a two-minute minor for interfering with Ryan Lindgren, Fox hammered a slap shot over the right pad of Jacob Markstrom (29 saves).

Jack Hughes tied it 4:03 into the second period with his 16th goal of the season. He was camped out in front of Igor Shesterkin (21 saves) and redirected Brett Pesce’s point shot past the goaltender.

The game was Shesterkin’s first since the Rangers’ 5-3 loss to the Stanley Cup champion Panthers on Dec. 30. The franchise goaltender had missed the previous four contests with an upper-body injury.

The Rangers fell behind 2-1 4:25 after Hughes’ goal when Jesper Bratt lasered a snap shot between Shesterkin’s right pad and blocker. That completed a sequence that began with Devils defenseman Dougie Hamilton knocking Cuylle to the ice in the neutral zone to spark the counterattack.

Immediately after the goal, Alexis Lafreniere was penalized for high-sticking Timo Meier. It was on that penalty kill that the Rangers turned a golden opportunity to tie the score into arguably the most bizarre moment of the season.

Smith attempted a drop pass to Vincent Trocheck on a two-on-none shorthanded breakaway instead of shooting it. The result was Trocheck’s in-tight wrister hitting the post.

The one-goal deficit held until Artemi Panarin’s rebound goal on a power play with 2:47 left in the period. Panarin one-timed the rebound of Zibanejad’s point shot from the left circle past a diving Markstrom for his 17th of the season.

“It’s always huge,” Fox, who had a goal and an assist, said of the Rangers’ special teams.

The Rangers were 2-for-3 with the man advantage and killed all four of the Devils’ power plays.

“Special teams is obviously the difference,’’ Fox said. “It’s been a strong point of our team for a long time.”