The New York Rangers have a good shot at playing in the postseason when hockey resumes. With Igor Shesterkin firmly in position as the number one goalie, it’s worth a look at his prior playoff experience.
The odds are that Igor Shesterkin will be in net when the New York Rangers start their first postseason run in three years. Based on his outstanding 12 game debut in the regular season, the job is his to lose. It’s important to note that the 24-year old had a long playoff run last spring in the KHL and in looking at how he did, we can correct some misconceptions about his performance.
For some reason, there is a belief that Shesterkin was not the number one goalie for SKA, especially in the KHL playoffs. Here are the facts.
Last season, Shesterkin split goaltending duties for SKA St. Petersburg with former Ranger back up goalie Magnus Hellberg. Shesterkin had a 24-4-0 record in 28 starts with a .953 save percentage and a 1.11 goals against average (GAA). Hellberg had a pretty good season as well with a 24-7-3 record in 34 games, with a .940 save percentage and a 1.32 GAA. There’s no disputing that they were an excellent tandem and sharing time in goal made sense.
However, when the playoffs started, it was Shesterkin who was in goal for second place SKA when the Conference Quarterfinals started against seventh place Spartak Moscow. It was a shock when Spartak jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the series with two road victories against the heavily favored SKA team.
Shesterkin was in goal for both of those games, allowing five goals in a 2-0 loss followed by a 3-2 defeat. In the first game, he allowed two goals on 16 shots with both goals on the power play.
In the second game, he allowed three third period goals on 18 shots with one of the goals on the power play. That came after an ill-advised boarding penalty by Nikolai Prokhorkin that tied the score at 2-2. Spartak won the game, when Martins Kasums scored with only five seconds left in regulation.
So, despite losing the first two games of the series, Shesterkin allowed only two even strength goals. It’s why he got the nod in net for the must-win third game of the series. Although SKA won the game, Shesterkin was replaced by Magnus Hellberg who then went on to start the next nine playoff games. The common misconception is that Shesterkin was replaced because of poor play and lost his starting job to Hellberg. That’s not true.
What really happened
Shesterkin started Game Three on the road in Moscow and played 35:41, allowing one goal on 16 shots. SKA won the game 5-2, getting back into the series. All reports are that Shesterkin was playing well and was cruising with a 4-1 lead. That’s when he was called for a tripping penalty.
Shesterkin tripped Spartak winger Kaspars Daugavins who crashed headlong into the boards, fracturing his ribs. Not only called for tripping, Shesterkin was give a game misconduct and was subsequently suspended for the next game.
He was replaced by Hellberg in that game, who allowed one goal the rest of the way.
Sitting out a suspension for Game Four, he was replaced on the roster by rookie Alexei Melnichuk with Hellberg starting. That’s when Shesterkin became the KHL version of Wally Pipp, who lost his starting job with the Yankees to Lou Gehrig.
Hellberg won Game Four, a 3-2 overtime win and with two strong performances under his belt, he got the nod instead of Shesterkin for the next game, a 2-1 win that clinched the series for SKA, 4-2.
You cannot blame SKA Coach Ilya Vorobyov for riding the hot hand as he kept going with Hellberg in the Conference Semi-Finals against third place Lokomotiv. SKA won the series in five games with Hellberg allowing only five goals in the first four games. In the clinching game, Lokomotiv scored four goals in a 5-4 overtime loss.