Rangers fall to Penguins despite absence of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin

In the Demolition Derby race that the Rangers find themselves in as they attempt to make the playoffs, every loss is crushing.

But this one was really bad. Really, really bad.

Playing against a struggling Pittsburgh Penguins team that was without its captain and best player, Sidney Crosby, out with an upper-body injury, and its second-best player, Evgeni Malkin, out with a lower-body injury, the Rangers should have had an easy night on Friday.

Instead, they found themselves behind after two periods for the sixth consecutive game. Though they threw everything they had at the Penguins in the third, they ultimately couldn’t catch up in a 3-2 loss before a stunned Madison Square Garden crowd in the Rangers’ final home game before the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off break.

Coach Peter Laviolette wasn’t in much of a mood to talk after this one. His postgame news conference lasted all of 35 seconds.

Asked if he saw enough from his team in the third period — when the Rangers outshot Pittsburgh 7-0 — to offset what he saw in the first two periods, when they were outshot 26-17, he said, “No.’’

Asked if he thought the result was a matter of the Rangers lacking intensity, he said, “It was.’’

Asked how his team could put out an effort like that when every point earned and lost is so huge, he answered simply, “It’s unacceptable.’’

“There’s no excuse,’’ said Vincent Trocheck, who scored the game’s first goal at 8:31 of the first period. “Inexcusable. We know where we’re at in the standings. We know we need every point, and we have two games left before the break. We can’t have what just happened.’’

The Rangers (26-24-4, 56 points) remained five points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. They will close out their pre-break schedule Saturday in Columbus.

Having won their last two games despite trailing 2-1 entering the third period in both, the Rangers had belief that even though they had not played well and were down 3-2 entering the third on Friday, they could find a way to come back. And they got two golden opportunities in the form of their only two power plays in the game.

The first came with 6:15 remaining when Pittsburgh’s P.O. Joseph was sent off for interfering with Jimmy Vesey. They weren’t able to score on that one, but they got another chance when Michael Bunting was sent off for holding Adam Fox with 2:36 remaining. Laviolette pulled goalie Igor Shesterkin (23 saves), giving the Rangers a six-on-four skaters advantage, but they couldn’t score on that one either.

“You’re trying to get looks, you’re trying to deliver pucks there, with the extra attacker for a bit of it,’’ said Fox, whose goal had given the Rangers a 2-1 lead early in the second period. “But when I looked there, they got in front of it. We had a couple looks that they got in front of.’’

Fox insisted the Rangers didn’t take the Penguins lightly with Crosby and Malkin missing.

“No one in here was thinking they’re missing those two and it’s gonna be an easy night,’’ he said.

The problem, he said, was that the Rangers simply can’t keep playing from behind every night.

“We’ve got to come out and play better and not dig ourselves in holes here going into the third period every game,’’ he said. “You dig yourselves in a hole every third period, you’re gonna come out on the short end of some of it. It’s hard to play from behind. And you know, we gotta do a better job in the first two periods.’’

The Rangers scored the only goal of the first period. Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson gave the puck away to Trocheck in the upper left circle and he whipped it past goalie Alex Nedeljkovic for his 17th goal.

The Penguins tied it on a goal by Blake Lizotte at 2:25 of the second, but when Fox scored on a shot from the right circle to make it 2-1 at 3:39, the Rangers — even though they were being outshot 17-9 at the time — seemed to have turned things around and re-taken control.

But a defensive lapse by Alexis Lafreniere, who failed to get off on a line change and then didn’t pick up Rickard Rakell on a rush, led to the tying goal from Rakell at 9:07 of the second. Philip Tomasino’s power-play goal at 11:59 gave Pittsburgh the lead — for good, as it turned out.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.