TAMPA — Challenge accepted.
Challenge accepted by the resilient Rangers, who staved off elimination for the fourth time this spring and for the 15th time over the last four tournaments with Tuesday’s 7-3 Game 6 victory over the Lightning to set up yet another Game 7 at the Garden on Friday, winner getting to go to the Stanley Cup final.
Challenge accepted by Derick Brassard, who recorded a hat trick and five-point night following a morning meeting with Alain Vigneault in which the coach urged No. 16 and fellow 1A/1B center Derek Stepan to lift their respective games.
“I told them that we needed them to step up and be difference-makers,” the coach told The Post. “And they did, they both responded, they both came through with what we needed.
“Brass’ line was great.”
It was Big Game Brass with Rick Nash and J.T. Miller accounting for five of the Blueshirts’ goals, with Nash collecting three assists and Miller a pair in winning their matchup with the formidable Steven Stamkos-Valtteri Filppula-Alex Killorn unit while Stepan, Chris Kreider and Jesper Fast got the better of the Triplets.
“I was disappointed and mad at myself for the way I played the last game,” Brassard, who unleashed a monstrous 10 shots on goal, said of his MIA status in Sunday’s 2-0 Game 5 defeat at the Garden. “The disappointment from losing in the final last year and losing the last game to put us in the position where we faced elimination really hit me [on Monday].
“The truth is, that I was challenged by my coach in the morning. It wasn’t a spanking, he wasn’t disappointed, and we’ve been working really hard against a lot of good centers, but A.V. said he needed a little bit more from us.
“Every time I’ve been challenged like that since I played junior, I always try to come through with more.”
Nash was ferocious. Brassard over and over called No. 61 “a beast.” Miller — elevated to the first line in the third period of Game 3 — was unconquerable.
The line went both tic-tac-toe and CRASH-ZAM-BASH-BOOM in an exhibition of force and finesse. Nash and Miller were forechecking zealots, especially early in the third that began with the Blueshirts up 2-1, and holding the lead only because of Henrik Lundqvist’s magnificence in nets through the first 40 minutes.
Talk about challenges accepted, none has been bigger than the challenge the King established for himself in the aftermath of Game 3, when he was dazed and confused having allowed six goals in back-to-back outings.
“If I’m not [all the way] up there with my focus, it’s a really tough game,” said Lundqvist, who propped up his team through the first period in which the Blueshirts were outshot 16-7 and yielded a bushel of golden chances. “I try not to overthink it.
“The last couple of games, I’m right where I want to be.”
Call this, then, another Springtime for Henrik.
And call this another Springtime for Big Game Brass, who has so often shined under the bright lights of Broadway, who loves the pressure, who loves being a part of New York’s Original Six team for which he has recorded 40 points (17-23) in 53 playoff matches.
“What we have here is a group that’s really tight and never panics,” said Brassard, obtained from Columbus with Derek Dorsett and John Moore in the 2013 deadline deal in which Marian Gaborik went the other way. “For me, the one thing is I don’t put any pressure on myself.”
Brassard got his first at 3:36 of the first period to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead by beating Ben Bishop on a backhand in front off a left-circle feed from Miller after the winger jumped on a loose puck. His second from the right circle made it 5-1 at 7:14 of the third, again on a feed from Miller.
The third came into an empty net at 18:19 of the third for the Rangers’ first hat trick in the playoffs since Michael Nylander got one in Game 3 of the first-round sweep of Atlanta in 2007 … and the first in an elimination Game 6 of the conference final since a fellow named Mark Messier turned the trick at the Meadowlands in a 1994 match you might have heard a little something about.
But Brassard’s assist on Miller’s goal at 3:02 of the third to give his team a 3-1 lead was perhaps his most impressive point of the night, given the score, and given that he had stripped Stamkos of the puck in the high slot just as No. 91 was preparing to fire on Lundqvist.
“Stamkos in that spot?” Brassard said. “Too dangerous.”
The Rangers stared down danger again. They survived again.
“Since I’ve been with the Rangers, every time we’ve faced elimination, this is the way we play,” Brassard said. “I don’t know whether that’s good or bad.”
Fifteen of 18 times, since 2012. Friday, they go for Sweet 16.
Friday, when another challenge awaits.