Igor Shesterkin makes Rangers history with unbelievable goalie goal

Last year the New York Rangers made the wrong type of history on home ice, and this year they are making history worth celebrating. For the first time in franchise history, a goaltender has scored a goal, and Igor Shesterkin couldn't be more thrilled.

Shesterkin finally gets his goal!

Shesterkin has always been known for his ability to play the puck, something that was a famous weakness of Henrik Lundqvist, and over the years he has come oh so close to scoring. Beyond making highlight reel saves, Shesterkin's puck handling has been a big difference maker for how the opposition plays against the Rangers.

During Lundqvist's time on New York, opponents would dump and chase and then get on the forecheck knowing that No. 30 would rarely leave his crease and attempt to play the puck. Shesterkin's ability to act as a third defender gives the Rangers the ability to prevent opponents from establishing zone time, and get the play moving in the other direction.

What is impressive about Shesterkin's goal is that he has remained determined, and continued to look for an opportunity to pounce. He's hit a few posts, seen the puck just slide wide for an icing, and even has his attempts batted down.

Shesterkin can finally rest easy, and it will forever be a little extra sweet considering it came in a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning with his fellow countryman Andrei Vasilevskiy sitting on the bench looking on.

With Tampa Bay pressing with an extra attacker and dumping the puck deep into the Rangers’ zone, Shesterkin trapped the dump-in behind his goal line, stepped out toward his trapezoid, and looked up to identify the open ice.

A few minutes prior, the puck ended up behind the net, but it was played too hard for him to do anything with it so he moved it up to a teammate. That another opportunity presented itself moments later was just all too perfect.

Another underrated moment about this goal... Shesterkin skating up the bench for the fistbumps from his teammates. Man it's great to have hockey back.

Shesterkin joins an exclusive list

Shesterkin is the 18th different NHL goalie to score a goal, and the last goaltender to be credited with a goal happens to be Igor's best friend Ilya Sorokin. The goal was really an own goal off the stick of Steven Stamkos of the Nashville Predators on March 1, 2025, but it is a goal just the same.

Before that, Alex Nedeljkovic scored against the Buffalo Sabres on January 17, 2025 and Filip Gustavsson scored for the Minnesota Wild against the St. Louis Blues on October 15, 2024. No goalie scored a goal during the 2025-26 season, so Shesterkin's strike broke what was just a short drought.

In terms of long droughts, Mike Smith of the then Phoenix Coyotes scored a goal all the way back on October 19, 2013, and after that it wasn't until Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators scored against the Chicago Blackhawks on January 9, 2020. I won't bore you with the whole list, but you can also find droughts ranging from 1979 to 1987, 1989 to 1996, and then 2006 to 2011.

Even though it is an empty netter, Shesterkin should feel proud for pulling up from downtown to finally sink one at the NHL level, as he admitted after the game that he'd been successful in junior.

While all goalie goals are cool, they aren't all created equally. There have been cases over the year in which a goalie was credited with a goal after someone else messed up, but Shesterkin joins a list of names that include goalies such as Ron Hextall, Chris Osgood, Rinne, and Linus Ullmark among others who aimed and fired from the full length of the ice away.

He also now has a career Gordie Howe hat trick, something also accomplished by Hextall, Osgood, Billy Smith, and Nedeljkovic, and that's just another feather in the cap of the Rangers' franchise player.

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