The Rangers not only went 0-for-3 in western Canada, but 0-for-their-5 games with the Northwest Division. And what does that tell you except that they remain a power only on paper?

“It’s a different game out here, more wide open,” said Jaromir Jagr. “They trade chances, and we’re not coached for that.”

Then again, neither are the Rangers coached to take penalties. Having just tied Saturday night’s game in Edmonton 1-1 on Dan Girardi’s deflected goal eight minutes into the third period, Ryan Holl weg hit Shawn Horcoff from behind, arguably for two minutes worth, not the five he was given.

But when Martin Straka held Dustin Penner on a blue-line faceoff, Horcoff roofed a goal on the five-on-three. With the Rangers again playing catch-up, Jagr next took a penalty that was as lazy as the one earned by Brendan Shanahan before Edmonton’s first power-play goal – a gratuitous slash behind the play after losing the puck – was stupid.

It still could have, should have, ended happily. With Henrik Lundqvist pulled and Joni Pitkanen in the penalty box for roughing a parked Sean Avery in front of goalie Mathieu Garon, Jagr fired a pass from the halfboards through two Oilers and waist high to Chris Drury, who took it on his chest at the opposite post and rifled the puck into the half-empty net with only seven seconds remaining.

“Sick,” Drury called the pass.

“Unbelievable,” Jagr called Drury’s presence of mind to not just try to whack the bullet out of the air.

When the Rangers, thanks to a brilliant Lundqvist glove save on a labeled 30-footer by Sheldon Souray, survived a Blair Betts penalty in overtime, they were going to get out of Edmonton with a win, until they didn’t. The same Lundqvist glove that robbed Souray only got a piece of Sam Gagner’s lone goal of the shootout.

“At least we got something, but this wasn’t very pretty,” said Jagr after the excruciating 3-2 loss. “We just have to make it up at home.”

There are, of course, plenty of games left to do that, starting tomorrow night at the Garden against a Tampa Bay team struggling much like the Oilers, a lot of good that did the Rangers. Save for missing Straka for 15 games with a broken finger, they have been pretty healthy and still not that good.

Now they may not be either. Straka staggered to the bench in the overtime with an apparent neck problem that Renney called a “stinger.”

Shanahan turned into Horcoff at center ice in the third period, went knee-on-knee, and was fortunate to escape with a contusion, although he didn’t know the degree.

Of course, he couldn’t shoot in the shootout, one more factor in a compelling game that nevertheless was a bad loss because of the Rangers inability to maximize a wonderful opportunity to win.

“I like our battle level, our willingness to come back, but, boy, it doesn’t matter if you are in the penalty box,” said Renney. “That’s disturbing.

“I can, I suppose, take some satisfaction that it hasnt been something running rampant through our season. But we gotta stop it right now or we’ll be watching teams in April.”

jay.greenberg@nypost.com