NEW YORK – Rule 51 in the NHL Rulebook is pretty clear: If a player shoots the puck out of his own zone and over the glass into the stands, then a delay of penalty is called.

The Rangers were fortunate last night in Montreal late in the third when Jed Ortmeyer hit the seats and were able to kill the ensuing 5 on 3 penalty. Tonight, against the Atlanta Thrashers, in their 3-2 overtime loss, they weren’t so lucky.

Up 2-1, with a little over 6:30 left in the third and five seconds into killing a Blair Betts cross checking penalty, Darius Kasparaitis offered another souvenir to crowd. After almost blanking the Thrashers on the ensuing 5 on 3, Ilya Kovalchuk knocked in a rebound with three seconds left off Henrik Lundqvist for his 42nd of the year to tie the game at two.

“I got the puck and kind of turned and lost my balance,” Kasparaitis said. “It’s not like I did it on purpose, so it’s bad luck.”

Lundqvist, who had 28 saves, added, “There was no question it was a penalty, but it’s always tough to get that type of penalty.”

It gave Atlanta new life after being outplayed by the Rangers the first two periods. The goal helped the visitors get it to overtime and then on a questionable holding the stick call on Martin Straka, former Ranger Marc Savard knocked in his 25th to give the two points to the Thrashers.

“There is no simple answer,” coach Tom Renney said. “The power plays gave them some momentum.”

But it should have never gotten to this point. After two strong periods, a 2-0 lead and a 27-13 advantage with shots on goal, New York seemed to run out of gas as the third period began.

The downfall started when former Blueshirt, Ronald Petrovicky, cut the Ranger lead in half at the 7:05 into the third. He beat Lundqvist on a backander that went to the right of the goaltender.

The third period meltdown is not what the Rangers are about. Going into the game, they were 24-5-4 after scoring the first goal and when Martin Straka at 5:39 of the second took an in front of the goal feed from Michael Nylander, beating Kari Lehtonen [33 saves] to open the scoring, it give New York its first lead since March 2.

“We just tried to play our game, but we didn’t have the legs,” Straka said who alluded to playing two game on a row may have hurt the team.

Then less than two minutes later, Jaromir Jagr got his own rebound to score his lead leading 44th of the season and double the Rangers’ lead.

It didn’t hold up, though, even with Lundqvist in goal and coming in with a 24-1-2 record when leading after two periods.

“We have had players in our lineup who have played well,” Renney assessed. “At this point in time, we’ve have yet to put [a complete game together after the Olympics.]”

Notes: Martin Rucinsky left in the third with what Renney called a “tweak” in his left knee…Petr Prucha played for the first time since spraining his right knee against the Flyers on February 4…Colton Orr played in place of Jed Ortmeyer, who Renney called a healthy scratch even though he did get hit on the hand in Montreal blocking a shot, and that created a new type of HMO line…Sandis Ozolinsh scored his first point as a Ranger as he assisted on Jagr’s goal.