Mika Zibanejad has been here before, a year ago actually, during the first-round series against the Penguins in which he went scoreless as the Rangers trailed in the series 3-2.

Three goals later from Zibanejad, two in Game 6 and one in Game 7, and the Rangers were on their way to the run that served as a platform for this 107-point season.

“You and I have talked at different times this year about what I learned going through that, and what I know is that I can’t let the fact that I haven’t scored get into my head,” Zibanejad told The Post after Monday’s 3-1 Game 4 defeat to the Devils that squared the series at two-all. “I can’t let that change the rest of my game that is also important.

“If it were up to me, I would have seven goals by now. Obviously I’m frustrated. I’m not happy. I know this is part of my job and I know that questions arise about it when we are losing. But I can’t dwell on that and I can’t dwell on me. It’s all about us.”

The Devils sealed off entries and jumped the Blueshirts through the neutral zone as if it were Tom Chorske, Stephane Richer, Bobby Carpenter and Sergei Brylin out there instead of Erik Haula, Dawson Mercer, Ondrej Palat and Timo Meier. The Rangers had no time and no space with which to make plays.

They were unable to unveil an effective forecheck, unable to contain the Devils in their own end, unable to create turnovers that might have led to odd-man rushes. Puck-possession shifts below the hash marks were few and far between. Thus, the Blueshirts were unable to set up, create meaningful traffic in front and test goaltender Akira Schmid, who is living the life.

“I think we feed into what the Devils are able to do,” Zibanejad said. “We obviously didn’t start well. There’s been bad execution. I don’t think we got up to the level of play we wanted to and needed.”

The Blueshirts sure didn’t match New Jersey’s 60-minute devotion. The 1-0 lead the Devils achieved 2:50 into first period on Jack Hughes’ breakaway dash that befuddled Igor Shesterkin seemed for all the world like a double-digit edge throughout the guts of the game. That’s how ineffectual the talent-laden Blueshirts were.

“We were chasing all game,” Zibanejad said. “We became desperate but that maybe got in the way when nothing was happening. We tried to overcompensate and that made it worse. We needed to calm down.”

The Blueshirts reset themselves well enough to break a scoreless streak of 89:39 when Vincent Trocheck beat Schmid off a Chris Kreider rebound at 1:42 of the third. But the Devils, rather than the Rangers, became energized and regained the lead at 8:22 when Jonas Siegenthaler beat Shesterkin with a wrist shot from the left dot.

“They did a good job. They’re obviously quick and were able to pressure us but we can do a better job of playing faster and being open and available,” Zibanejad said. “It’s on the five guys out there.

“We tried to do it all on one play instead of chipping away and earning our chances. We have to get back to the way we played during the season. We have to trust each other.”

The Blueshirts pulled Shesterkin with 2:00 to go and loaded up with the big dogs, sending Zibanejad, Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Patrick Kane, Vlad Tarasenko and Adam Fox onto the ice for an offensive right-wing draw.

Nothing happened.

Four games now, no goals for Zibanejad and no goals for Panarin. The two games at the Garden, one goal apiece for the Rangers.

Life comes at you fast in the playoffs. When a team is winning, that kind of thing doesn’t matter. When a team starts to lose, it matters plenty. Here’s this: Hughes is scoring for New Jersey; Hughes is controlling nearly every one of his shifts.

Head coach Gerard Gallant flipped Zibanejad and Trocheck with seven minutes remaining in the first period, moving Zibanejad between Panarin and Tarasenko while Trocheck skated between Kreider and Kane. The move had no practical impact. The big guns were silent all night.

It is 2-2 with Game 5 at the Rock on Thursday but the Rangers seem to be chasing the series as well as chasing the Devils. The young team from across the river looks as if they are having the times of their lives. The Rangers, not so much. After two duds at home, there are facing moments of truth.

“For me, yes, I want to score to help the team,” said Zibanejad, who had just one shot off three attempts. “Last year, I didn’t score until Game 6, so I am familiar with this situation. The next couple of days, I have to look to see what I can do to be more effective, to get into better position to get the puck to the net and to create. I have to trust myself.”

And the Rangers have to trust that Zibanejad — the Rangers’ best center since Mark Messier’s first term ended more than a quarter century ago — will find the way just as he did last year.

If not, there’s big trouble ahead.