NEW YORK - After Patrice Bergeron’s stick got under Jed Ortmeyer skates, as the Ranger forward charged alone to goaltender Tim Thomas, there was a nervous buzz at the Garden.

An infraction was called, but would the popular defensive forward be called with an elusive penalty shot? And would the Rangers want that? After all, two minutes in the box for Bergeron would help the Blueshirts hold up the slim 2-1 lead, with less than three minutes left in the game.

“I said to [assistant coach] Mike [Pelino] on the bench, ‘Can we decline?’” coach Tom Renney joked afterwards. “But I won’t tell Orty that, so we will keep that a secret.”

But Ortmeyer - whose only experience in the one-on-one situation came in the marathon shootout last season against Washington - was up to the task as he poked the puck past Thomas’s right skate to secure the Rangers 3-1 victory.

“They told me he liked to take the bottom of the net. I guess I didn't listen very well,” said Ortmeyer, who is only playing in his sixth game and tallied his first goal. “I just tried to get him moving a little bit with a head fake and I was going to shoot, but I kind of lost the puck, so I tried to go around him and luckily there was a little bit of room behind his leg.”

“Good things happen to good people,” Renney added.

The goal may have been insurance, but having Ortmeyer on the ice is what is important. After being diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism over the summer, it was uncertain if Ortmeyer would be even able to continue his career, let alone contribute to the Rangers this year.

“He’s a significant player to us,” Renney said. “If you look back at last year and what he brought to us it was enormous. We have a couple of players - Brendan [Shanahan] - being one of them that say that to me. He didn’t realize Jed was going to be that valuable and what kind of addition he would be. And I concur.”

Added Jaromir Jagr, who got his 42^nd assist on the Martin Straka’s game winner in the second: “If the doctors didn't find out right away, maybe he wouldn't be alive right now. That's why everybody in New York and on our team want him to be successful. He's a great kid and he's part of our game. It's not easy to score on a penalty shot in a pressure situation. He doesn't score a lot, but he plays good defense, penalty-killing and he'll block any shot, go head-first.”

It didn’t look like the Rangers were that interested in the first period. Playing with similar lines that orchestrated the third period comeback on Thursday, Michael Nylander was able to take a Marcel Hossa pass and put it by Thomas [25 saves] to put the Rangers ahead at 10:34.

But sloppy play allowed Marc Savard to score his 16^th off Henrik Lindquist [24 saves] less than a minute later to tie the game.

Renney decided to make another line adjustment during the first intermission that made the Rangers click in the second, as they had 22 of their 38 shots during that period.

“You just make suggestions,” Renney said of his first intermission discussion with his team. “We identify areas where we would be better at. During the first period - even though it was a close game - we didn’t generate any interest for the people watching this thing. We were playing not to lose and we had to get over this in a big way.”

One thing that did work was putting the top line of Straka, Nylander and Jagr back together, which executed the game winner a little less than six minutes into the second.

“Tom doesn’t like to do matchups,” Jagr explained. “So at home or on the road, I will always face the best player. That’s a disadvantage for me. [Keeping the top line together] will compensate for something else. We play on the same level and we can talk about it. If we don’t do the matchups then we need to have five guys out there who know what they are doing. That’s the only way we can beat them.”

And that was the way the Rangers were able to set up Ortmeyer’s heroics.

Notes: Shanahan was named the Rangers lone All-Star. Jagr had the stats and stature to go, but general manager Glen Sather has discussions with the league office to keep Jagr off the roster in order for him to rehab his injured shoulder…New Ranger Jason Krog, claimed off of waivers on Friday, had a strong game winning five of six faceoffs. He is wearing No. 20...Jagr seemed to be in a jovial mood. After speaking to reporters, he put a cigar in his mouth like his boss would and said he was Glen Sather…Former Ranger Ulf Nilsson was at the game and was the answer to a trivia question on who was the first Swedish Ranger. But after further review, that answer was wrong, since Swedish born Ulf Sterner donned the blue shirt for four games back during the 1964-1965 season.

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