TAMPA, Fla — The Tampa Bay Lightning know what type of effort it will take to finish off the New York Rangers.

The two-time defending champions are one win away from a third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final, where they would continue their bid to become the first team in 40 years to win three consecutive NHL titles.

The Rangers, down 3-2 to the Lightning in the Eastern Conference final, have been especially resilient this postseason. In addition to overcoming a 3-2 playoff series deficit to eliminate the Pittsburgh Penguins in the opening round, New York rebounded from losing the first two games to Carolina in the second round to oust the Hurricanes in seven games.

Game 6 of the East final is Saturday night at Amalie Arena. The Lightning won Games 3 and 4 on home after dropping the first two on the road.

“We’ve been down 3-2 every series so far, so we’re going to have to have a level of desperation,” Rangers forward Andrew Copp said.

“The confidence of doing it before is bigger and better, having to do it again there’s belief in the room. … We’re playing pretty good, and it’s a really, really tight series,” Copp added. “We just got to make that extra play at the end of the game to be the difference.”

Since being outscored 9-4 in the first two games at Madison Square Garden, Tampa Bay has won three straight to move to the brink of having a shot at the NHL’s first three-peat since the New York Islanders won four straight championships from 1980-83.

Game 7, if necessary, will be Tuesday night in New York.

The Lightning, who’ve won 10 consecutive series dating to the start of the 2020 postseason, aren’t taking anything for granted.

“We obviously know the fourth one in the hardest one to win. Our mindset has got to be the same as the last three games,” veteran Lightning forward Pat Maroon said.

“We know what’s at stake. We don’t take games off,” Tampa Bay’s Nick Paul added. “(New York) is a really good team. You take a night off, they’re going to take it over. … There’s no letting off the gas.”

The Rangers are 5-0 this postseason when facing elimination. They’re 2-7 on the road in the playoffs, but did win Game 6 at Pittsburgh to even that series before prevailing in Game 7 at Carolina to reach the East final.

“We don’t care when we win it, we just want to win it,” Lightning Coach Jon Cooper said. “We have a great opportunity (Saturday night) to do that. … But just because it’s an elimination game, it doesn’t mean we are going to knock them out. If we don’t bring our best, it’ll be trouble for us because I know the Rangers will bring their best.”

Rangers Xoach Gerard Gallant is counting it.

“It’ll be a battle. They’re a good hockey team, that’s why they’re the Stanley Cup champs,” Gallant said. “We have to go in there, play our best game … win a game and give us a chance for a Game 7 back home.”

A RANGERS FAN from Staten Island was banned from Madison Square Garden for life Friday after he cold-clocked a Tampa Bay Lightning fan from Massachusetts – then punched a good Samaritan who tried to stop him from skating off, police and stadium officials said.

Wearing a red shirt with Artemi Panarin’s No. 10 on the back, James Anastasio had just watched the Rangers fall to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-1, in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals Thursday night. He was exiting the stadium at about 10:45 p.m. when he was captured on video turning and sucker-punching a 26-year-old man in a Tampa Bay jersey walking behind him. The Lightning fan fell backward, unconscious and surrounded by dozens of stunned hockey fans.

A good Samaritan who saw the attack followed Anastasio in an attempt to stop him, but Anastasio punched him in the face, too, leaving him with a minor injury, cops said.

Police charged Anastasio with two counts of assault and two counts of harassment.

SABRES: Buffalo acquired goalie Ben Bishop in a trade with the Dallas Stars  in a salary cap-related paperwork move involving a veteran who is not expected to play again because of degenerative right knee injury.

The Sabres add the final year of Bishop’s contract, which represents nearly a $5 million cap hit to boost their payroll closer to the NHL’s $60 million minimum. Buffalo, which also acquired a seventh-round pick in next month’s draft, was projected to be nearly $20 million under the cap floor before acquiring Bishop.

There is no anticipation the 35-year-old Bishop, who played at the University of Maine, will resume playing.

• The Sabres are honoring their franchise goalie leader in wins and games played by retiring Ryan Miller’s No. 30 jersey next season. The announcement coincided with Miller’s trip to Buffalo, where he took part in a news conference to discuss being inducted into the Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame later this year.

Starting in 2002-03, Miller spent his first 10-plus NHL seasons playing for the Sabres. He was selected by Buffalo in the fifth round of the 1999 draft and set Buffalo’s record for goalies with 284 wins and 540 games played, before eventually setting the mark for American-born goalies with 391 career wins. He retired after the 2020-21 season.