The New York Rangers have employed 93 different goaltenders since joining the NHL in 1926-27. Not one of them had ever scored a goal until Thursday night, when Igor Shesterkin launched the puck the length of the ice from one knee and into an empty Tampa Bay net.
It came at 17:26 of the third period in a 5-1 home-opening win, with Andrei Vasilevskiy pulled and John Carlson having dumped the puck into the Rangers’ zone. It bounced off the boards and settled near Shesterkin’s crease. He lifted his stick and let it go.
“I didn’t see the puck go across the line,” Shesterkin said. “Then everyone started jumping on me.”
He heard it rather than saw it, as the crowd roared and his teammates mobbed him while the building chanted his name. Mika Zibanejad, who has watched him try this for years, admitted it had felt overdue.
“I feel like a dozen times I’ve been on the bench thinking, ‘OK, this one goes in’ and he barely misses,” Zibanejad said. “With the amount of chances he’s had to do that, and now finally get it, that was great.”
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Shesterkin is the 18th in league history, which is roughly one every six seasons since the NHL began. The ambition wasn’t new for him either. He has spoken for years about wanting one, having already managed it as a 19-year-old with Spartak Moscow in Russia’s junior MHL back in October 2013.
Teammate Pavel Dorofeyev, who is tied with Shesterkin and three others for the team lead in goals, offered the obvious assessment.
“He’s not just a great goalie. He’s a great goal scorer now,” Dorofeyev said.
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Head coach Mike Sullivan described it simply as history, and said the bench reaction told the story.
“When those moments occur for a team, they’re great moments. You could see the raw emotion from the players on the bench,” Sullivan said. “Shesty is such a great goalie. He makes so many timely saves for us. When he has a moment like that, the guys get fired up about it.”
Having waited nine NHL seasons for the first one, Shesterkin was asked whether that was the end of it. His answer was five words long and absolutely perfect.
“I will keep trying to score,” he said, per ESPN.
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