Here were the Rangers with the first three against division rival Pittsburgh playing the kind of road game which certainly seemed headed their way nearly halfway through. Such a win would’ve made them four-for-four on the road to start the postseason. Something they hadn’t done in over three decades. That’s why they play 60 minutes.

Up against an explosive opponent, the Blueshirts took their foot off the gas pedal allowing the talented Penguins to score the next four and pull out a 5-4 victory in Game One of the Eastern Conference Semifinal at Mellon Arena Friday night. No truth to the rumor they’ll be renaming it NHL Arena. What. With a very debatable interference call going against Ranger forward Martin Straka which led to Evgeni Malkin’s power play decider with 1:41 left.

Having survived two awful sequences where they let the Pens score on consecutive shifts, a shaken Ranger club showed some mettle when favorite booing target Jaromir Jagr found an open Scott Gomez during a line change for the former Devil’s fourth of the playoffs tying the seesaw contest back up 4-4 with 9:56 remaining.

As Tom Renney had warned prior to the series’ first drop of the puck, facing the NHL’s darling Sidney Crosby was no easy task. Make no mistake. The 20 year-old 2006-07 league MVP didn’t need any help setting up one-time Ranger Pascal Dupuis 14 seconds after team antagonist Jarkko Ruutu banked one in off Michal Rozsival to change the game’s perplexion.

Sid The Kid also didn’t need either vet referee Don Koharski or Kelly Sutherland handing his team a power play with 3:20 left on what appeared to be little from Straka. Funny how the former Pen got nabbed when previously during the same shift, there were a couple of instances where Rangers were pulled down while cycling the puck in the Pittsburgh zone. Never mind.

Having successfully killed off the first four Pittsburgh power plays, the Rangers came close but couldn’t get the job done allowing such a bogus call to do them in when a Crosby one-timer from the top of the right circle deflected off Malkin’s left leg past Henrik Lundqvist. A nonsensical video review confirmed the obvious. That Malkin had no intent to kick it in. Wonder how league brass could’ve figured out that one?

What the Rangers need to figure out is how a three-goal lead slipped away. Unable to put the Pens away, they allowed the second seed to hang around down a goal entering the third. Maybe now they got the memo that this isn’t their first opponent.

Marian Hossa tied it at 4:40 when his sharp angle shot went through a maze of players eluding Lundqvist, who never was set. Twenty seconds later, he was busy scooping out former Ranger Petr Sykora’s tap-in off a gorgeous Malkin feed taking advantage of dreadful coverage. Dan Girardi overcommitted and third goalscorer Sean Avery watched instead of taking Sykora in front.

That kind of lax approach in team defense was the antithesis of the Ranger philosophy. They weren’t very detail oriented.

“Pittsburgh isn’t where they’re at because they’re a poor team and they don’t know how to bounce back,” an analytical Renney noted to the Associated Press afterwards. “We were certainly aware of that—almost to a fault.”

The evening didn’t start out great as they were outshot 8-0 and took two minors. However, some superb PK work and an early Straka power play goal got them on the board first. Taking a pass from Jagr, Straka’s centering feed for rookie Brandon Dubinsky went off a Pen for the period’s only goal. By its conclusion, shots were 9-7 Pens with the Blueshirts starting to take control.

Looking like the more poised team, the Rangers struck twice 1:45 apart early in the second. First, Chris Drury redirected home a Marc Staal point shot to make it 2-0 at 1:52. Video replays showed that Drury’s stick wasn’t above the crossbar allowing it to stand up. Avery would make it 3-0 when he converted off a three-on-two, wristing one through Fleury for his first of the series.

But a harmless Ruutu centering pass off Rozsival less than five minutes later changed the outcome entirely.

“(Ahead) 3-0 in the playoffs, you’d like to think it’s over, but what are you going to do?” Gomez said after scoring for a third straight game. “We can’t get in a track meet with those guys. It’s over, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“That one hurts. I thought we had it,” a disappointed Jagr added. “The second one is going to be even tougher, but we have to do it somehow.”

Notes: Back healthy from a broken toe, Ranger enforcer Colton Orr replaced Ryan Hollweg on the fourth line logging 5:48. … Dubinsky, Girardi and partner Fedor Tyutin had rough nights all finishing minus-two. … With two helpers, Jagr now leads the Blueshirts with 10 points (2-8-10 in 6 GP) this postseason. … New York got excellent games from tandem Marc Staal and Michal Rozsival with the top pair combining for five assists along with a plus-three rating. … Malkin notched a goal and assist while Crosby and Ryan Malone each contributed two assists. … Shots were dead even the final 40 minutes with each team getting 17 (9 and 8 respectively). Pens outshot the Rangers 26-24 overall. … Veteran Pen F Gary Roberts (groin) was a late scratch with ex-Ranger Adam Hall replacing him. … Fleury made 20 saves improving to 5-0 this postseason while Lundqvist turned aside 21 of 26 falling to 4-2. … Game Two is tomorrow afternoon at 2 PM on NBC.