Rangers' Igor Shesterkin almost became 13th NHL goalie to score a goal
The puck bounces over the head of Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin off a shot by the Senators during third-period NHL game action in Ottawa, Ontario, on Sunday. Credit: AP/Justin Tang
Henrik Lundqvist never did it. Mike Richter never did it. John Vanbiesbrouck never did it.
Igor Shesterkin hasn’t done it. But he came within a few inches of doing it Sunday in Ottawa.
We’re talking about a goalie scoring a goal. Only 12 men have scored as a goalie in the NHL for a total of 15 tallies.
Shesterkin nearly became the 13th when he lifted a gorgeous shot toward the Senators’ empty net late in the third period of the Rangers’ 2-1 victory at Canadian Tire Centre.
Anticipation grew during the puck’s journey to the other side, but it slipped past the left post with 1:15 left in regulation instead of finding the net.
Still, Shesterkin’s audacious maneuver thrilled the Rangers, even though it led to an icing and a faceoff in front of the confident goalie. Coach Gerard Gallant said "I enjoyed it" and brushed off any fear of the icing potentially helping the Senators to tie it.
The first NHL goalie to be credited with a goal was the Islanders’ Billy Smith. He was the last Islander to touch the puck when Rob Ramage of the Colorado Rockies goofed and scored an own goal in Denver on Nov. 28, 1979.
"They ended up kicking it into the corner," Smith told NHL.com in 2017. "Rob Ramage went into the corner to get the puck [and] grabbed it. He didn’t really look. He just figured somebody would be on the point and he threw it back to the point. There was nobody there.
"I did rub people the wrong way when they said, ‘Well, you didn’t shoot it.’ I say, ‘It doesn’t matter. I’m the first.’ "
Ron Hextall was the first to score a direct goal. That came on Dec. 8, 1987, for the Philadelphia Flyers against the Boston Bruins.
Hextall said he was trying to score and wanted to be the first goalie to do it with his own shot.
"I knew I could do it," he said. "It was a matter of when."
Hextall scored a second direct goal in the playoffs against Washington on April 11, 1989.
The king of scoring from the crease was Martin Brodeur of the Devils, who did it three times, including once in the playoffs.
Brodeur’s last goal came on March 21, 2013, against Carolina. Since then, only Mike Smith of the Coyotes (Oct. 19, 2013) and Pekka Rinne of the Predators (Jan. 9, 2020) have done so.
The other goalies to score are Chris Osgood, Damian Rhodes, Jose Theodore, Evgeni Nabokov, Mika Noronen, Chris Mason and Cam Ward.
Shesterkin is such a gifted puck-handler that it wouldn’t be a shock to see him join the list someday. But the Rangers aren’t paying him to score. They are paying him to do what he did on Sunday, which was stop 29 shots and protect a one-goal lead after Artemi Panarin made it 2-1 at 9:14 of the second period.
"He has like a calm presence out there," Mika Zibanejad said. "I feel like he’s not stressed in any type of space that he does. I think he’s very calm and that kind of spreads throughout the team and he’s been huge for us all season. He just keeps going. So that’s obviously a huge plus for us."
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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