ST. PAUL, Minn. — Cold hard reality is still setting in for a Rangers team that will be without its top defenseman and second-line center for some time, but a wonky shootout loss in the immediate aftermath only brought the club farther down to Earth.

The Rangers — without Adam Fox (long-term injured reserve), Filip Chytil (injured reserve) and Barclay Goodrow (paternity) — barely snagged a point in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Wild on Saturday night, after the visitors let a three-goal first-period lead evaporate into thin air.

“We knew they were going to be desperate,” Jimmy Vesey said. “No real excuses, but they definitely probably deserved the two points tonight.”

There’s an argument to be made about which team needed a win more.

The skidding Wild were looking to stop the bleeding of a four-game losing streak, while the Blueshirts needed a pick-me-up after receiving the most grim injury news they’ve had in a while.

Minnesota ultimately completed a gallant comeback capped with shootout goals from Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy to snap the Rangers’ six-game winning streak.

Though the Rangers were playing with fire shortly after taking the 3-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes, in which Vesey, Artemi Panarin and Erik Gustafsson scored on three of the Rangers’ first four shots in the span of 3:17.

The scoring surge forced the Wild to pull goalie Filip Gustavsson in favor of Marc-Andre Fleury.

Head coach Peter Laviolette has called for the Rangers to maintain offensive pressure despite holding a lead, but Minnesota gained momentum at the end of the first and never really relinquished it for the remainder of the contest.

“Ultimately, I would’ve loved the fourth one [earlier], I guess that didn’t happen,” Laviolette said. “Everything, we were out of sync a little bit. The second period, I just don’t think we skated very well. … There was just too much standing with pucks and not supporting pucks, battles and all of that needed to be better after the start of the game.”

The Wild doubled the Rangers’ shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes, 14-7, but the visitors still went into the first intermission with a 3-0 lead.

Though they didn’t make it easy on themselves as they handed Minnesota three power-play opportunities, over which Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick made nine saves to keep the Wild off the board.

Having to kill off three straight penalties was difficult for the Rangers to recover from.

Minnesota then scored twice in the span of 29 seconds in the second period to cut the Rangers’ lead to one, both on plays that saw Quick lose his stick as the Rangers scrambled in their own zone.

After Zuccarello made it a 3-3 game just 1:41 into the third period, Marco Rossi gave the Wild their first lead of the night.

Chris Kreider finally answered for the Rangers with his signature tip of an Artemi Panarin bomb from the top of the zone with 13:20 remaining in regulation, which lifted the longest tenured Ranger over Andy Bathgate for the fourth-most goals in franchise history.

The Rangers had already spent so much time in their own zone at that point that the only thing that prevented the Wild from securing the two points in regulation was Quick.

“He’s been lights out all year,” Vesey said. “He definitely kept us in the game.”