Now it’s Jesper Fast who goes down in blow to Rangers

Just when the Rangers believed they had regained top-nine full health with Friday’s return of Mats Zuccarello and Pavel Buchnevich from long-term absences, the club has lost Jesper Fast for two to four weeks with a likely shoulder injury.

Fast suffered the injury as a result of a hard, open-ice check he took from Arizona’s Josh Archibald at the 5:20 mark of the second period Friday. The winger missed approximately 11:30, before rejoining the fray. He generally took his regular turn for the remainder of the 4-3 overtime defeat.

But Fast, who has had shoulder issues before — the Rangers called this an “upper-body” injury — did not practice Saturday. The club issued a press release on his condition minutes before Sunday afternoon’s 4-3 OT defeat to Vegas.

Boo Nieves, recalled from the Wolf Pack, played 10:14 on a fourth line that included Lias Andersson (reinstated following Friday night’s scratch) and Ryan Strome. Nieves, concussed during the first exhibition game, had seven points (3-4) in 12 matches for the Wolf Pack following his Nov. 8 assignment to the AHL after he had been cleared of all post-concussion symptoms.

Andersson played 9:24 while Strome got 11:00 of ice.

Matt Beleskey was the healthy scratch up-front while Brendan Smith was scratched on defense to accommodate the return of Adam McQuaid, who had missed 21 games with a core injury he suffered in Chicago on Oct. 25.

“All things considered it felt pretty good,” said McQuaid, who played 14:16 while paired primarily with Freddy Claesson. “It’s been a while, so it took a while.”

Goaltender Alexandar Georgiev was recalled from Hartford. The team also assigned Beleskey and Dustin Tokarski, who was recalled by the Rangers on Dec. 3 and served as the team’s backup goaltender for four games, to the Wolf Pack.

Kevin Hayes, in the lineup after going heavily into the boards late in Friday’s match, recorded three assists to tie his career personal best for assists and points in a game. No. 13 has nine points (3-6) in his last four games, 12 points (3-9) in his last nine games and 21 points (5-16) in his last 18 matches.

Hayes played 20:51, second among forwards to Mika Zibanejad’s 21:03. Zibanejad scored on the power play for his 11th overall and fourth on the man-advantage. Chris Kreider scored his team-leading 15th goal.

The Blueshirts allowed a power-play goal for the sixth straight game. The Rangers, who killed one of two, have allowed 8 PPGs in 23 times short over that span.