Rangers doomed by brutal start in loss to Maple Leafs

They say the first minutes of a hockey game set the tone, and the Rangers came out with a loser’s pace in Tuesday’s matchup against one of the other top teams in the East, the Maple Leafs.

So it didn’t matter that the Blueshirts pulled within one twice, because this game — a 7-3 loss in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden — was out of their hands by the end of the first period.

A two-goals-to-none second period could not cancel out how ugly the Rangers’ opening 20 minutes were.

The Rangers simply could not recover from a beyond lethargic first period, in which they were limited to just four shots on goal and fell into a 4-1 hole.

Toronto pummeled the Rangers, who were without defenseman K’Andre Miller due to personal reasons, through to the first intermission.

It marked one of their worst frames of the season.

The visiting team had its way with the puck and jumped out to a 2-0 lead within the first 5:07 on goals from Auston Matthews and Conor Timmins, whose long wrister from the top of the zone somehow made it past Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin.

Blake Wheeler cut the Maple Leafs’ lead in half when Morgan Rielly’s clearing-attempt of a rebound went right to the 6-foot-5 forward for the put-back.

It hardly resulted in any momentum for the Rangers, who gave up two more tallies in the span of 21 seconds later in the first.

After Calle Jarnkrok capitalized on the havoc the Maple Leafs caused around the Rangers’ net, a misplay in the neutral zone led to Mitch Marner’s 10th goal of the season.

The Rangers snapped out of it to pull back within one for a second time in the second period.

Toronto appeared to be running out of gas, as well, while playing on the second night of a back-to-back after an overtime loss to the Islanders on Monday.

Vincent Trocheck — because who else? — got things started by drawing a hooking call on Timmins to send the Rangers on the power play.

Artemi Panarin then found Mika Zibanejad for his signature one-timer to make it a 4-2 game.

Shesterkin, who had a shaky first period without much help from the players in front of him, made a big-time save on Bobby McMann on Toronto’s odd-man rush while the Rangers were changing.

That sent the Rangers the other way, allowing Zibanejad to feed a streaking Wheeler for his second goal of the game, a gorgeous snipe from the right faceoff circle.

Wheeler let out an emphatic scream in the Swedish center’s direction before the two came together to celebrate.

One more power-play goal from Marner less than a minute and a half into the third period was all Toronto needed to cruise to victory.

Matthews threw one last goal in for good measure.

The Rangers may have put up a fight eventually, but this game was lost early on.