NEW YORK – The Rangers now know how the Islanders felt.

Sitting on a 3-1 lead going into the third period, the Blueshirts allowed three goals to the Detroit Red Wings, which gave them a 4-3 loss and another home defeat.

“There's only so many times you can learn from a game,” said Matt Cullen. “You have to eventually start winning if you plan on playing in the post season. We know that and we have to find a way.”

Much like their Long Island brethren last week, the Rangers dominated Detroit for 40 minutes, but could not close the deal for the in the final 20. The Wings, to their credit, took advantage of Blueshirt mistakes as they made their comeback.

“We didn't go into a shell, but I am not exactly sure what happened,” defenseman Aaron Ward wondered. “They capitalized on some opportunities and they put them in.”

And when Henrik Zetterberg scored with less than eight minutes left in the game, there was nothing the Rangers could do but chalk it up to another wasted opportunity.

It was the third time this year, the Rangers blew at least a two goal lead in the third period and the first time it happened on the Garden ice.

“We have to forget about this one,” said Henrik Lundqvist, who made 22 saves on the night. “There's a big game for us tomorrow. We have to play a good game.”

The Wong comeback started when Lundqvist made an error by getting tangled up behind the net with Valtteri Filppula, which allowed the puck to deflect in front and Jiri Hudler was there to tap it into the open net early into the third.

Then, Dan Cleary put a shot from point at 10:54, which was put in off the rebound by Robert Lang to tie it at three.

“I don't know if we has a panic to our game,” coach Tom Renney thought. “I think we gave up a little to much ice. We weren't efficient in getting the pucks deep and forcing them to come the length of the ice.”

All of this came after 40 minutes of good solid hockey, which allowed the Rangers to capitalize on mistakes by Dominik Hasek [17 saves], which allowed the Rangers to go up 2-0 before the match was three minutes old.

First Brendan Shanahan opened the scoring by taking a cross ice feed from Cullen, who blasted it behind Hasek to put the Rangers up.

Just 13 seconds later, Michael Nylander made it 2-0 when Hasek failed to get a behind the net rebound and left the net opened.

“I tried to stop it behind the net and couldn't before I could recover,” said Hasek, who also allowed a soft goal to Marcel Hossa later in the first. “Three big goals, but we found a way to win.”

And the Rangers didn't, which has been the story all season.

Notes: Jaromir Jagr sat out the last shift with a tweak of his hip-flexor. He said, “Hopefully tomorrow it's going to be better.” No word on whether he will play tomorrow, but was seen leaving with a slight limp...Sean Avery has landed in New York and will participate in workouts tomorrow morning and also will suit up in Jersey tomorrow night.