When Patrik Nemeth missed a stretch of games earlier this season, he was dealing with the lingering effects of a late-December bout with COVID-19.

The Rangers defenseman had a much happier reason for missing three games over the past week: his wife, Towe, gave birth to their baby boy, Vincent, on Friday.

Now a father of two sons, Nemeth returned to the ice on Wednesday and delivered his first goal of the season in his 40th game — “Finally,” he said — which tied the game at three in the third period before the Rangers went on to beat the Blues 5-3.

“Well, it’s been [a] really good [week],” Nemeth said Thursday after practice, preparing for Friday’s matchup with the Devils at the Garden. “I got a healthy son, so it’s been awesome. … Everything went very well, so very fortunate.”

Given the roller coaster that Nemeth has been on recently — Wednesday marked only his second game in the Rangers’ past 12 — it was a feel-good goal for the veteran blueliner.

“Very happy for him to get that,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “He’s had a tough last three or four weeks, but pretty excited now with the new baby and everything. I’m sure he’s excited.”

Nemeth was also relieved to be back to feeling like himself again.

The 30-year-old entered COVID-19 protocols on Dec. 18 but was later cleared without missing a game because of a lull in the schedule around Christmas. Nemeth then played in two games, sat out the next four, came back to play in six straight before sitting out seven in a row (including a stint on injured reserve) as he dealt with the aftereffects of COVID-19.

“It was hard,” Nemeth said. “I don’t want to get into it too much, but it was tough. Obviously people react differently from what I’ve heard, but I had a brain fog and I couldn’t focus. So it was tough for a while.”

Nemeth returned to the Rangers’ lineup on Feb. 20 in Ottawa — his first game in nearly a month — before missing the next three games for the birth of his son. But after two months of being on and off the ice, he feels ready to get back into a rhythm as the Rangers continue their march towards the postseason.

“The last two or three months has been a little bit of a grind,” he said. “But that’s all in the past and I’m just happy everything is good now. Excited to get going again and be healthy. … Once you feel like yourself again and you feel normal, it’s an awesome feeling.”

Earlier in the season, Nemeth spent plenty of time skating with fellow Swede Nils Lundkvist, plus a handful of other defensive combinations. But Wednesday marked his seventh game skating with another rookie, Braden Schneider, on the Rangers’ third pair.

In 88:12 together, Nemeth and Schneider have been on the ice for two goals for and four goals against, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“[Schneider] is a really good player,” Nemeth said. “He’s really taken a big step here. So we’re just going to have to keep working on it. The games we’ve played I think has been pretty good. So I think it’s just going to get better, absolutely.”

In the meantime, Nemeth will be keeping busy at home, with his newborn and his soon-to-be 2-year-old son to take care of.

“He’s just a week old, but I think it’s going to be a handful, especially with the way my firstborn — he’s great, but he’s just playing around and pulling out everything from the cabinets in the kitchen and it’s just a lot of work,” Nemeth said. “But it’s fun.”