Igor Shesterkin is raising his game when the Rangers need it most

RALEIGH, N.C. — Igor Shesterkin and the Rangers have experienced it from all sides the past three springs. They have overcome a 3-1 series deficit by winning an overtime Game 7 at home. They have overcome a 3-2 deficit to win a Game 7 on the road. They have lost a 2-0 series lead in dropping four straight. They have lost another 2-0 lead before losing in seven. And they have swept.

“There’s an edge to him if we’re losing, but he’s a pretty consistent level-headed guy all the time,” Jacob Trouba told The Post following Wednesday’s spirited practice at the club’s training facility. “But this morning, you could tell he was gearing up.

“He knows what’s on the line.”

It’s a trip to the conference final that will be on the line when the Blueshirts attempt to close out the Hurricanes for the third time here in Thursday’s Game 6, after having failed to do so twice — most notably going down in Monday’s Game 5 at the Garden in the club’s most disappointing performance of the year.

A couple of days later, though, it was as if the Rangers had gone through the “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” treatment. Game 5 was gone as if it had never quite happened. The focus was on the opportunity in front of them, not the lost ones behind them.

And it will be Shesterkin in net just as he has been in net for all 36 Blueshirts postseason games these past three years. We talk all the time about the need for the marquee guys to elevate their respective games in the playoffs. Shesterkin has done that.

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“He’s kind of been our best player in every series, hasn’t he?” was the rhetorical question Ryan Lindgren posed to The Post. “He is just so dialed in, you look at the way he works, he’s just so focused and gives off an air of confidence.

“He’s working hard, he’s out there in practice working his butt off. He’s been incredible.”

The Rangers, as well documented over the past couple of days, came with nothing for Game 5. And yet, still, somehow, had a 1-0 lead after the second period on Trouba’s shorthanded goal. There was one reason for that, and it was Shesterkin — who carried his team for 40 minutes until the deluge finally got the better of the goaltender .

“I don’t know how he was able to keep them to zero for two periods,” Lindgren said. “He’s got laser-focus. He not only wants to win, but he wants to be the difference-maker.”

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Yes there were Mark Messier, Brian Leetch, Adam Graves and Alex Kovalev in 1994, but there is no Cup without Mike Richter. Yes, there are and have been Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Adam Fox through this Rangers 2020 revival, but there would have been no conference final two years ago and there would be no 3-2 lead in this series without Shesterkin .

“Both of our goaltenders, they compete and they work hard every day,” head coach Peter Laviolette said, referencing both Shesterkin and three-time Cup winner Jonathan Quick. “They are diligent about their business, and I see that translate into Shesty’s game.

“I think he’s been outstanding. In the games where we’ve had a lot come at us, he’s been the guy. When it comes to the goaltending position, he’s the guy who has to be the difference-maker. And he is that guy for me.

“He’s a guy that you want in the net going into a big game down in Carolina,” Laviolette said. “I think he’s proven that through the course of his career, down the stretch and a lot of it in the playoffs as well.

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“I think a lot of it comes from his mental preparation, how he prepares himself whether it’s on the ice or off the ice, and he’s able to take what he put into prepping for the game onto the ice for the game. I think he’s done that at a high level.”

Richter and Henrik Lundqvist were not only remarkable goaltenders, they were loquacious and would fill notebooks with analysis and anecdotes. Shesterkin? To each his own.

I asked the 28-year-old native of Moscow whether he had needed to train himself to have a short memory, and leave bad goals and defeats behind.

“I just go play,” he said.

What more do you need?

“He’s dialed in on his game, and we all know it,” Trouba said. “And like I said, there was a little bit extra today.

“He’s been our rock, right?”

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