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Rangers clinch playoff berth with 4-2 win over Blue Jackets
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Rangers clinch playoff berth with 4-2 win over Blue Jackets

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Mats Zuccarello puts the Rangers up 3-1 en route to a playoff berth Monday night.Aaron Doster/USA Today Sports

Mats Zuccarello puts the Rangers up 3-1 en route to a playoff berth Monday night.

COLUMBUS – First the Rangers lost three straight. Then Justin Bieber wore a Blueshirts jersey at Sunday night’s iHeartRadio Music Awards in California. Then the team posted a photo of the unbearable, dreadlocked Bieber on its own Twitter account with the message: “Why love yourself when you can love #NYR!”

Everyone had to agree: Enough was enough.

And finally the Rangers (44-26-9, 97 points, three to play) responded by clinching their 10th playoff berth in the past 11 seasons themselves, victimizing ex-coach John Tortorella’s woeful Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena, 4-2 – though they barely held on in a nervous third until Derek Stepan sealed it with an empty-netter.

Agonizingly, too, the franchise’s 58th-ever postseason berth came at a price: Captain Ryan McDonagh blocked a power play slap shot from ex-Ranger teammate Brandon Dubinsky, a Blue Jackets alternate captain, with his right hand at 14:47 of the first and did not return to the bench for the final two periods.

The Rangers had skidded to an 0-2-1 record in their previous three, but they at least had been healthy compared to last season’s stretch run – when Kevin Klein, Mats Zuccarello, Keith Yandle and McDonagh all missed significant time or played through major injuries in the late regular season and playoffs.

A McDonagh absence of any substantial length this spring, it goes without saying, would be a major blow.

Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh doesn't return to the ice after taking a blocked shot off his hand.Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images

Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh doesn’t return to the ice after taking a blocked shot off his hand.

It forced Klein onto his off left-side Monday night, where he was beaten wide on Jackets captain Nick Foligno’s second goal of the game 10:45 of the third period to close within 3-2. And in the immediate future, it could mean Dylan McIlrath’s return or a Raphael Diaz call-up for Tuesday night’s home tilt against Tampa Bay.

McDonagh, the second-year captain, hasn’t had a good year by his high standards, but he has helped foster a culture of strong belief in the Rangers’ locker room even when the team is down.

“Down the stretch, this is our team. This is what we’re going to go to war with,” McDonagh told the Daily News Monday morning, explaining his team’s persistent optimism. “There is a lot of confidence in this room, even through the ups and downs. We’ve had a lot of playoff experiences, and in those seven-game series, we know it’s not as much about your opponents as much as how you’re playing.”

Alain Vigneault’s team hasn’t played well lately, but Chris Kreider’s speed for a goal and an assist was the difference Wednesday, as was the sloppy play of Columbus backup goalie Joonas Korpisalo.

Kreider finished his own rebound off Derek Stepan and Henrik Lundqvist assists on a first-period rush. Then Dan Boyle and Mats Zuccarello both tallied five-hole in the second, Boyle’s a soft-serve shot from the side angle that simply shouldn’t go in on an NHL goalie.

Henrik Lundqvist stops 29 shots on Monday night.Jay LaPrete/AP

Henrik Lundqvist stops 29 shots on Monday night.

Zuccarello’s goal off the rush at 18:14, created by Kreider’s defensive zone takeaway from the Jackets’ Dalton Prout, was an important answer to Foligno’s goal at 14:41 to halve the Ranger lead to 2-1 for the Jackets (70 points).

With the win, the Rangers not only clinched; they also maintained a tenuous hold on the Metropolitan Division’s third seed ahead of the Islanders (43-26-9, 95 points), who beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-2, at Barclays Center and would have bumped the Blueshirts into a wild-card spot if the Rangers had lost.

The idle Penguins (100 points, three to play) probably will be too tough to catch for second place the Metropolitan Division. Pittsburgh roared past the third-place Blueshirts as the Rangers lost to the Pens, 3-2, on March 27, and fell 4-3 twice last week at Carolina and against visiting Buffalo with a chance to clinch.

The Rangers are now guaranteed a place among the Eastern Conference’s eight playoff qualifiers because current ninth-place Boston (90 points, three to play) no longer can catch them. But Thursday night’s head-to-head with the Islanders at the Garden looms large, as does the Saturday afternoon regular season finale against visiting Detroit.

The third seed would draw a first-round matchup with the Pens. The wild-card would mean starting in Fort Lauderdale against the Florida Panthers or in Tampa against the Lightning.

One thing at least is for sure: the Rangers are in.

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