Rangers lack energy in 2-1 loss to Avalanche at MSG

You didn’t need a crystal ball to predict a letdown. All you had to be was an avid observer of the Rangers for the last few weeks.

After three invigorating periods and overtime in Brooklyn on Wednesday, the Rangers turned 180 degrees, caught in a vise through a dreary 2-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at Madison Square Garden Thursday night.

“We played a really good game Wednesday night and this team sprung the trap,” center Derick Brassard said. “They made us dump the puck and when you do that, you use up your energy. It was hard to go through the neutral zone. They were clogging there, we were trying to come back with speed, but at the end of the day, you can’t go through all those guys. It was a frustrating game for us tonight. “

A troubling pattern has emerged. The Rangers are 1-4-1 in their last six games, including a 3-0 loss to the Flyers, which followed a draining 4-3 loss to the Bruins on Nov. 27. A 3-0 defeat of Nashville preceded a 5-1 rout by Montreal on Nov. 25. The Rangers won the Nov. 30 Carolina game, in which goalie Cam Ward’s gaffes gave the them two goals in a 4-3 win, but the Blueshirts have scored one goal or less in four of the last six games.

“It was a Western Conference opponent, not someone we see a lot, it seemed like it was a wait-and-see a little bit and it shouldn’t have been that way,” Dan Girardi said. “They sit back and trap a lot. We should have tried to take control of the game.”

Instead, Chris Wagner broke a scoreless tie at 13:21 of the second period, taking a pass off the right wall with Ryan McDonagh stuck in the neutral zone, and sped to the right circle, where his wrister beat Antti Raanta (16 saves), making his fifth start.

The Rangers fumbled away a few chances for an attack earlier in the period, when Brassard couldn’t control a pass on a three-on-one, and when Kevin Hayes couldn’t corral a pass that would have sprung him for a breakaway. In fact, they rarely tested Semyon Varlamov, who arrived with a 3.28 goals-against average and a lowly .887 save percentage. Varlamov stopped 24 of 25 shots.

Gabriel Landeskog then got past Hayes in mid-ice, triggering a two-on-one with the Rangers chasing in vain. Landeskog fed Matt Duchene, who buried his 14th at 17:37 for a 2-0 lead.

“We had a tough game [Wednesday] and it took out a little of our power,” Raanta said. “We couldn’t break the forecheck early in the game. You want to keep it close . . . I couldn’t do it tonight. They got a second goal pretty quickly after the first one.”

The Rangers stirred in the waning moments of the second, when Rick Nash was hooked behind Varlamov’s net and the power play tested the Avalanche goalie in the final 1:04. But they didn’t score, even in carryover time in the third period, and skidded to 0-for-4 with the man-advantage, counting the 0-for-3 futility in the loss in Brooklyn. Only when coach Alain Vigneault pulled Raanta with about three minutes left did the Rangers score, on Oscar Lindberg’s rebound in front with 49.5 seconds left.

The Rangers, without injured Derek Stepan (broken ribs) and Kevin Klein (abdominal strain), host Ottawa on Sunday, hoping to snap back. “Obviously we’re facing some adversity right now,” said Brassard, “and we’re just going to have to battle through it.”