This is the stage of glory now, this Battle of the Hudson. The Rangers intend to make their own glowing history, not echo Mark Messier’s 1994 chapter of their book of legends.
The Devils’ road is straightforward, a trip to their fifth Stanley Cup final.
But the Eastern Conference regular-season champ Rangers must match what the last Cup-winning Rangers team did to the Devils in 1994. That team triumphed from a 3-2 series hole after Messier guaranteed a Game 6 victory, then backed it up with a hat trick in New Jersey 18 years ago tonight.
The situation is the same. The Devils hold that 3-2 series lead and can end the Rangers’ season tonight in Newark.
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OLD & NEW: Chris Kreider, who had just turned 2 when the Rangers and Devils played their 1994 classic, and the Blueshirts will try to repeat history and beat Martin Brodeur and the Devils in an Eastern Conference finals Game 6 tonight.
Yet the 1994 example shows that if these Rangers pull off a two-victory comeback, they will be well along with making themselves legends, too.
“We’re not here to duplicate this thing someone else did, or the way they did it. We have to write our own story,” Rangers winger Mike Rupp told The Post yesterday.
“In this locker room, we all believe we’re going to win,” said Rupp, who spiced this series by sucker-punching ex-teammate Martin Brodeur on a drive-by in Game 4.
If the words are different, the plot is remarkably similar to that of 18 years ago tonight, after Messier issued his “We’ll Win” guarantee.
The winner of that Battle of the Hudson was headed to the Stanley Cup finals as the favorite, just as either team will be when it faces the Kings starting Wednesday in New York or New Jersey.
The Devils have won two straight games to erase their own series deficit, as they did in 1994. The ’94 Rangers won the Presidents Trophy as regular-season champs, six points ahead of the Devils, while the 2012 Rangers won the Eastern Conference, finishing seven points ahead of New Jersey.
In 1994, the Rangers were back in the playoffs after missing the postseason the year before. This time, it’s the Devils back in the dance after their first miss in 14 seasons. The Rangers brought in Mike Keenan as coach then, the Devils Pete DeBoer now.
“That’s what makes that so great, the way it happened back then,” Rupp said.
Brodeur, a student/professor of NHL history, said this time is different.
“I don’t think there’s anything similar,” said Brodeur, 22 then, 40 now. “I know if you guys look at it, it looks the same. But it’s different teams and a different way of playing the game.
“That’s 18 years ago. That’s a long time. I know I’m feeling a lot different. I’m feeling a lot more appreciative of what’s going on.
“Before, the Rangers were a good team when they beat us. We were not supposed to compete with them at all in ’94. They made these trades and they had all these big guys at the end, and they pulled it off in a dramatic way.
“But this time around, we feel we can play with them. It makes me feel a lot more comfortable going into these games coming up.”
Rangers coach John Tortorella trashed ’94 talk.
“Not to disrespect what happened, but that has nothing to do with how we’re preparing,” he said. “I don’t look at it as overcoming a 3-2 deficit. We need to win a hockey game. We’re preparing to try to win one hockey game, and we’ll see after that.
“There’s no magic. There are no special speakers coming in. None of that. I think we found our game [Wednesday] night, and I think that was mostly a mindset. We played more on our toes. We played to who we are. We have to do that [tonight].”
DeBoer said 1994 is irrelevant.
“I don’t even think about ’94. In ’94 I still had hair. It was that long ago,” he said. “That plays no part in what we’re doing.”
Each team has overcome a 3-2 series deficit in these playoffs, the Rangers over Ottawa, the Devils over Florida. The Devils want to prevent the Rangers from playing a Game 7 for the third straight series Sunday at the Garden.
“I don’t think we’re looking at two chances. We want to do it [tonight],” Dainius Zubrus said. “We’re definitely not hoping to win. We want to win.
“We don’t want to go back to their building. It was a tough game. They played really well, I think, and we don’t want to be going back for Game 7, that’s for sure.”
It’s all on the table, a night to remember. These teams are chasing glory, tonight’s game that stage.
mark.everson@nypost.com
the Devils, the Devils, Martin Brodeur, Rangers, Rangers, Rangers, Eastern Conference, Eastern Conference, Devils, Stanley Cup
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