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Rangers fail to clinch playoff berth in 4-3 loss to Sabres

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Buffalo Sabres' Zemgus Girgensons shoots past Henrik Lundqvist in the second period.Frank Franklin II/AP

Buffalo Sabres’ Zemgus Girgensons shoots past Henrik Lundqvist in the second period.

The Rangers’ playoff berth is not going to clinch itself, although maybe it will have to.

For the Blueshirts were justifiably booed off the ice at the end of Saturday night’s first period at the Garden, and then a clumsy Henrik Lundqvist was necessarily benched in the early second, in a miserable third straight defeat, 4-3, to the Buffalo Sabres.

The Rangers (43-26-9, 95 points, four to play) failed for the second time in three nights to punch their postseason ticket, needing only a regulation or overtime win to qualify.

J.T. Miller and Derek Stepan scored to close a three-goal deficit to 4-3 by the 4:52 mark of the third period, but Buffalo held on to push the third-place Rangers three points behind the Metropolitan Division’s second-place Penguins (98 points, four to play) after Pittsburgh’s 5-0 blasting of the Islanders at Barclays Center.

Lundqvist, captain Ryan McDonagh and Kevin Klein were the primary culprits on the Sabres’ first three goals, two by Buffalo captain Ryan O’Reilly in the first period and one from Zemgus Girgensons 46 seconds into the secon. The third goal prompted Alain Vigneault to signal immediately to backup Antti Raanta.

Lundqvist’s misjudgment of a Sabres dump-in and subsequent soft rebound onto O’Reilly’s tape for the opening goal 10:07 into the first period negated any energy the Rangers’ skaters had mustered at the start.

The Rangers’ franchise goaltender often gives his team a chance when they are unprepared. Thursday night’s 4-3 loss in Carolina was the latest example: the Hurricanes outshot the late-arriving Blueshirts 13-4 in the first period but led just 1-0 due solely to Lundqvist.

Saturday, though, Lundqvist was a part of the problem, allowing three goals on nine shots before being pulled for the sixth time this season. Klein and McDonagh either mismanaged the puck or stepped out of position.

Assistant coach Ulf Samuelsson preached on the MSG telecast that the Rangers’ coaches had shown pregame video stressing that the team work in units of five. But once again, one thing went wrong, and the Rangers’ players went everywhere.

That made two straight games with a chance to clinch that the Rangers inexplicably were not ready to start.

“I think preparation, there’s team preparation and individual preparation to get yourself ready to execute and compete,” Vigneault said pregame. “Those are players’ responsibilities. We talked about it with our group, and we’ve moved on.”

Maybe they should talk about it again. Vigneault’s players certainly responded with more urgency once Lundqvist was benched.

Kevin Hayes and Eric Staal, two of the only Rangers skaters ready off the jump, combined for Hayes’ goal 2:58 into the second to answer Girgensons’ goal and Lundqvist’s benching and make it an actual competitive NHL hockey game.

Raanta and Keith Yandle badly fumbled a handoff with the Rangers defenseman circling the net that led to a turnover, former Islander Matt Moulson’s goal at 13:09 of the second and a 4-1 deficit.

Miller finished a back board rebound of a McDonagh shot at 19:25 of the second, though, and Klein’s hustle and Yandle’s bump of Girgensons off a Stepan rebound led to Stepan’s goal at 4:52 to draw within 4-3. Stepan tipped in a Chris Kreider shot.

Raanta also made the necessary saves to give the Rangers a chance late.

The Rangers earned a 5-on-3 power play in the final half of the third, too, but they couldn’t score past Buffalo goalie Chad Johnson. Eric Staal appeared to injure his right shoulder in the third on a hit by Buffalo’s Mark Pysyk but stayed in the game.

The Sabres (33-35-11, 77 points) probably made coach Dan Bylsma feel good about denting the Rangers’ playoff aspirations, considering Vigneault and the Blueshirts got Bylsma fired from his former job in Pittsburgh by coming back from that 3-1 series deficit in the 2014 second round.

The Rangers had a magic number of three to clinch a playoff berth, meaning any combination of three points gained by them or lost by Detroit in Saturday night’s game in Toronto would have gotten them in. But they also could have gotten in with a regulation or overtime win, due to a tiebreaker they would gain over either the Red Wings or Bruins, who must play once more head-to-head.

But the fourth goal was the back breaker, and the Rangers, who are 38-3-3 when they hold opponents to two or fewer goals in regulation or OT, fell to 5-22-6 when they surrender three or more.

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