The Rangers are exceeding expectations again. They have gone toe-to-toe with the Hurricanes for the first three games of this second-round series while to a large degree blunting Carolina’s well-documented ferocious forecheck.

They are still trailing in the series, of course, and must hold serve Tuesday night at the Garden to retain a credible shot at advancing to the conference finals and having a hypothetical shot at doing to the Lightning what the Islanders could not do in 2020 or 2021.

And if this does become a homer series, the Rangers will have to find a way in either Game 5 or Game 7 to break through the way the Bruins did against the Canucks in the 2011 finals by taking Game 7 in Vancouver after the home clubs had won the first six of the series.

Blueshirts head coach Gerard Gallant even seemed to forecast a Game 7 in the aftermath of Sunday’s 3-1 victory. “We’ve got four games left with these guys,” he said while referring to the post-buzzer nonsense initiated by Max Domi.