Too many men on the ice, and too few goals on the scoreboard. Add in a nutty Michael Grabner goal straight from the Rube Goldberg School of Engineering, and the Bruins shuffled out of TD Garden early Saturday night with a 3-2 overtime loss to the New York Rangers.

The loss, only their fourth in 13 games (9-3-1), kept the Bruins tucked neatly into the playoff discussion in the Eastern Conference. But it was yet another lesson in how hard it is to play with a deficit.

For the third time in four days, the Bruins never played with a lead, despite briefly believing they broke onto the board first when Ryan Spooner knocked one by Henrik Lundqvist with only 4:29 gone in the first.

But what would have been Spooner’s second goal of the season was quickly struck from the record when the alert Rangers challenged it as being offside. Sure enough, an overeager Jake DeBrusk had rushed ahead of puck carrier David Krejci at the blue line, and 1-0 turned into uh-oh.

“I definitely think it was offside by a lot, so . . . it was the right call for sure,’’ said Spooner, playing in only his 11th game this season, plagued by a groin injury. “The puck had passed the blue line, so . . .’’

And so it goes. Roughly 10 minutes later, at 14:42, Grabner fired off a 30-foot wrister that had zero chance of getting by Tuukka Rask (5-0-1 in his last six starts). Until — guess what? — it did.

In a span of no more than three seconds, Grabner’s shot:

■ Zipped by Kevan Miller, who attempted to block it off the Ranger forward’s stick;

■ Banged off Rask’s mask, sending the puck high behind the net;

■ Ricocheted off the glass, sending it back toward the net;

■ Nailed Rask, still high in his crease, in the middle of his back;

■ Dropped straight behind Rask and deflected into the net off the goalie’s right skate.

“Really?’’ said Rask. “I didn’t see that.’’

It lacked only a mouse, a piece of cheese, a stack of falling dominoes, an exploding water tower, and who knows what else from Professor Goldberg’s lab.

“I’ll have to talk to one of the bull gang guys to find out what the hell happened there,’’ said the good-natured Rask, now 8-8-3 on the season. “Must have been a Celtics game last night. That’s a first.’’

Humor aside, the equipment bag-full of luck gave the Rangers a humongous boost. They added to the lead when J.T. Miller raced through the Boston defense on a power play early in the second. The Bruins weren’t able to solve Lundqvist until only 2:48 remained in the second, a Danton Heinen tip of a Zdeno Chara shot that made it a 2-1 game.

To make matters all the worse for the Bruins, they were a dog’s breakfast most of the day on the power play. Before finally using it to pull even at 2 on Brad Marchand third-period strike, they were 0 for 5 on the man-advantage, able to muster but one shot. Hard to find a better example of failing to cash in on the fortunes that came their way — but they constantly mishandled and misfired the puck.

“Frustrating with how things have turned around,’’ said Marchand. “We were so good early on with the PP, and not as good lately.’’

And ultimately it was a failed penalty kill in overtime that handed the Rangers the victory.

The Bruins were caught with too many men on the ice 1:05 into the 3-on-3 session, setting up the Rangers with the 4-3 on edge. Mats Zuccarello fired home from the right side 51 seconds later.

“I saw him release it,’’ said Rask, who had ex-BC Eagle Chris Kreider restricting his view at the doorstep. “But you play your angles, and the guy is front doing the flash screen . . . it’s a perfect shot. If you beat me like that, it’s tip your hat and move on.’’

Heinen finally ended the Bruins’ futility in the offensive end with 2:48 left in the second period, tipping home Chara’s one-time slapper from above the left circle.

“Nice shot by Z,’’ said Heinen, now with seven goals. “Just fortunate to make the tip.’’

On the bright side, where Boston coach Bruce Cassidy prefers to live, the Bruins were able to chisel 3 points out of three games (including Detroit and Washington) in which they never led. Overall, their defense is proficient, their goaltending sharp. It’s a long way from April, but their game is in far better shape than it was a month into the season.

“It’s too long a year always to dwell on things that didn’t go well,’’ Cassidy said. “Some of what happened was self-inflicted . . . the penalties, some of our puck plays, we forced them. That’s not structure, that’s poor decisions. We had a lot of giveaways [22 to New York’s 10]. Having said that, when you are down, 2-0, it’s hard to come back against a good team — and we did.’’

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont @globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD.