Banged-up Rangers lose again to Golden Knights as Igor Shesterkin struggles

Just about every game for the Knicks at the Garden has been a lovefest lately, but the Rangers had a very different experience Friday night involving their justifiably restless and unhappy home crowd.

The once-rolling Rangers barely are clinging to their hold on first place in the Metro Division as they continued to limp into the All-Star break with a boo-filled 5-2 loss to the Golden Knights to slip below NHL-.500 over their last 25 games.

Shaky All-Star goalie Igor Shesterkin coughed up three goals on the first nine shots he faced — and four on 19 overall — as the Blueshirts dropped to 11-12-2 since Dec. 5 following an 18-4-1 start under first-year coach Peter Laviolette.

The Rangers, who already received discouraging news Friday morning when Filip Chytil suffered a setback in his bid to return from a suspected concussion, also lost defenseman Ryan Lindgren in the first period to an undisclosed upper-body injury.

With only Saturday’s visit to Ottawa remaining before the break, the Rangers lead the Hurricanes by two points and the Flyers by five in the Metro, with both of those teams also in action Saturday.

With his team going 3-5-2 over its previous 10 games, Laviolette split up his longtime top defensive pair to start the game, with Adam Fox working with Erik Gustafsson and Lindgren skating alongside Braden Schneider.

The pair of K’Andre Miller and captain Jacob Trouba remained intact, but Lindgren’s departure midway through the first period necessitated a five-man rotation for the rest of the game

Lindgren did not return after he was hit into the boards by Keegan Kolesar eight minutes into the game.

With veteran center Nick Bonino clearing waivers and getting assigned Friday to AHL Hartford, Laviolette went with Jonny Brodzinski and Barclay Goodrow at center on his third and fourth lines — behind the top units anchored by Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck — against the defending Stanley Cup champions, who also downed the Blueshirts, 5-1, last week in Vegas in the opener of a disappointing 1-2-1 western swing.

The new Schneider-Lindgren pairing was on the ice for the opening goal of the game, but it went to the Golden Knights (29-14-6) on Sheldon Rempal’s redirection in front of Paul Cotter’s shot past Shesterkin 5:02 into the first period.

Fox and Gustafsson drew the assists on the equalizer 1:29 later, with Wheeler burying his eighth of the season from the left circle.

Vegas goalie Adin Hill denied slumping Alexis Lafreniere (one goal in 15 games) in close with his glove late in the period to maintain the 1-1 knot despite a 15-6 shot advantage for the Rangers through one.

Still, the Knights beat Shesterkin on each of their first two shots in the middle session — within 46 seconds of each other for a 3-1 lead by 4:04 of the middle session.

It marked the ninth time the Rangers have coughed up two goals in less than a minute this season.

Kolesar stripped Artemi Panarin of the puck and raced in alone, beating Shesterkin with an off-wing wrister from the left circle over the glove to the far post for an unassisted score at 3:18.

Less than a minute later, Jonathan Marchessault connected on a tip-in goal, prompting more groans and boos from the MSG faithful.

Marchessault slammed home his second of the game barely two minutes into the third for a 4-1 lead and completed the hat trick with an empty-netter late, giving him a team-leading 25 goals on the season.