Shesterkin Ends a 100-Year Rangers Goalie Scoring Drought

Igor Shesterkin scored at 17:26 of the third period on Oct. 1, 2026, firing into Tampa Bay’s empty net to finish a 5-1 Rangers win at Madison Square Garden. He is the 18th NHL goalie to score, and the first in Rangers history.

The puck hopped off the end boards to his crease after Lightning defenseman John Carlson dumped it in. Shesterkin dropped to a knee and sent it the length of the ice. He never saw it cross the line. The Garden told him anyway.

Shesterkin Scored on One Knee at 17:26

Andrei Vasilevskiy was on the bench for an extra attacker when the puck came back to Shesterkin. He raised his stick a little, then launched it while dropping to one knee. League video shows the puck soaring, landing above the high slot, and sliding inside the left post with 2:34 left.

Shesterkin said a teammate on the blue line screened him on the follow-through. He heard the crowd before he trusted the shot.

I didn’t see the puck land so I didn’t know can I celebrate or not. Everyone started jumping on me. Unbelievable feelings.

Igor Shesterkin, Rangers goalie, after the home opener

He still led the line down the bench for fist bumps, a lap skaters take for granted and goalies almost never get. Eight Rangers piled onto him after the whistle, a scrum that would have been too many men if the puck were still live. Fans chanted “Igor, Igor!” and, later, “Igor’s better!”

He stopped 24 of 25 shots and was named first star. The only Tampa Bay goal came when Nikita Kucherov’s backhand went in off Rangers forward Noah Laba. Shesterkin did not have to invent drama at his own end. He added it at the other one.

The First Goalie Goal in Rangers History

The Rangers have used 93 different goalies since they entered the NHL in the 1926-27 season. Henrik Lundqvist, Mike Richter, and Eddie Giacomin never scored. Neither did anyone else in the crease, through a century of Garden nights and empty nets that stayed empty.

Shesterkin is 30. He already owned the other half of this job. The 2022 Vezina Trophy winner signed an eight-year, $92 million extension in December 2024. On this night he also collected his 100th win at Madison Square Garden, in his 177th game there.

HOME WINS AT THE GARDEN

• Shesterkin’s 100th: 177 games at Madison Square Garden, fourth-fastest in Rangers history.
• Mike Richter: 100 home wins in 172 games.
• Eddie Giacomin: 100 home wins in 173 games.
• Henrik Lundqvist: 100 home wins in 176 games.

Lundqvist, now a Rangers television analyst, joked on the air about New York needing more scoring, then congratulated the man who finally put a goalie on the scoresheet. Announcer Kenny Albert held up a scoresheet that had never had this box filled in.

New York is 1-1-0. The club opened with a 3-0 loss at Boston on Tuesday. Last season the Rangers started 0-6-1, were shut out in their first three home games and in five of their first seven, and did not score at the Garden until 57 seconds into the fourth home date. Mika Zibanejad scored at 5:34 of the first on Thursday. The building exhaled, then Shesterkin gave it something it had never had.

Six Goalie Goals Have Landed Since 2023

League records now list 21 goals by 18 NHL goalies, 19 in the regular season and two in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Twelve of those goalies shot the puck into an empty net, Ron Hextall doing it twice. The other eight were last-touch credits when an opponent put the puck into his own net.

The pace has changed. Six of those 21 have come since Feb. 25, 2023, a span of 3 years, 7 months, and 6 days. The other 15 were spread from 1979 through Pekka Rinne’s shot on Jan. 9, 2020. Coaches pull goalies earlier and more often. Puck-playing netminders treat the empty net as a live look, not a novelty.

THE BURST SINCE 2023

Shesterkin had already needled Sorokin, his friend across town, for last season’s last-touch credit. “This one counts,” he said of Thursday’s shot. Jarry’s empty-netter in 2023 also came against Vasilevskiy and Tampa Bay. The Lightning have now been on the wrong end of two of the 13 shots in this club.

A running log of every goalie goal across the NHL, minors, juniors, and Europe puts the league list in a wider frame: rare at every level, and still a night people replay. The NHL version used to feel like a once-a-decade accident. The last four seasons have made it look like a skill with a window.

New York Went 7-for-7 on the Kill

The goal sat on top of a game Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper did not recognize. The Rangers killed all seven Lightning power plays and went 1-for-2 on their own. Tampa Bay managed six shots in the third period even while spending nearly seven minutes on the power play and pulling Vasilevskiy twice for a 6-on-4.

HOW THE 5-1 WAS BUILT

1. 5:34, first period: Mika Zibanejad scores on the power play from Pavel Dorofeyev and Adam Fox, 1-0.
2. 10:51, first period: Dorofeyev one-times Oliver Bjorkstrand’s pass for his first Rangers goal, 2-0.
3. 1:40, second period: Eeli Tolvanen’s first Rangers goal goes in off Lightning defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous, 3-0.
4. 7:59, second period: Nikita Kucherov scores off Noah Laba, from Ilya Mikheyev and Brayden Point, 3-1.
5. 16:01, second period: Gabe Perreault redirects Fox, with a Zibanejad assist, 4-1.
6. 17:26, third period: Shesterkin, unassisted, empty net, 5-1.

Dorofeyev, acquired from Vegas on June 26 and signed to a seven-year, $77 million deal, led the Golden Knights with 37 goals last season. He had a goal and an assist in his Garden debut. Fox had two assists. Zibanejad’s opener was the 60th time he has scored New York’s first goal of a game, passing Chris Kreider (59) for second in franchise history behind Rod Gilbert (72).

Vasilevskiy stopped 20 shots. The Rangers put four past him on 24 shots before the empty-netter, then added the fifth from 180 feet of ice. Lightning (0-1-0) went 0-for-7 with the man advantage. Shesterkin called the kill “awesome” against one of the league’s better power plays and against Kucherov.

The MHL Goal That Started the Hunt

Shesterkin has talked about scoring in the NHL for his entire nine-year career here. The last time he actually did it was in Russia’s junior MHL, with Spartak Moscow. League junior logs give him one goal in 23 MHL games in 2013-14. In 2020 he said he knew the date: Oct. 31, 2013.

He almost had the NHL version in his fourth career start. On Jan. 31, 2020, against Detroit at the Garden, he missed twice at an empty net in a 4-2 win. Then-coach David Quinn said he would be surprised if Shesterkin never got one, because of his poise with the puck.

Zibanejad has had a seat for the misses since. “I feel like probably a dozen times I’ve been on the bench thinking, ‘OK, this one goes in,’ and he barely misses,” the center said. Coach Mike Sullivan said one of Shesterkin’s strengths is handling the puck, and that he thought this one had a chance “probably when it was at the peak.”

Asked whether the goal was now his career highlight, Shesterkin said he still likes to watch his fight. He dropped the gloves with Jacob Markstrom, then with New Jersey, at the Garden on March 31. Scoring, he added, beat fighting. “Yeah, at least nobody is punching my face.”

Why Tampa Left the Net Empty

Jon Cooper pulled Vasilevskiy off and on during the third period, including those 6-on-4 looks, then pulled him again at even strength in the final minutes. That last extra attacker is the window almost every modern goalie goal needs. Carlson’s dump-in, the bounce, and a goalie who has been waiting for it did the rest.

I just thought we had limited pushback, and that’s just not a staple of what’s gone on in this room. It was almost like the game was an inconvenience to play, got in the way of summer.

Jon Cooper, Lightning coach, after the 5-1 loss

Cooper said he can live with winning and losing. He could not live with the way his team played. Take away the score, he said, and the missing pushback was the problem. The Rangers, for one night, had the opposite problem at home: they scored early, killed everything, and still had a goalie hunting a souvenir.

Pavel Dorofeyev, tied with Shesterkin and three other Rangers at one goal apiece through two games, treated the new scorer as competition. “He’s not just a great goalie, he’s a great goal-scorer right now,” Dorofeyev said. “I have a serious competitor right now, so got to keep an eye on him.”

Shesterkin Already Wants Another

Shesterkin had a celebration planned. He never got to use it, because he lost the puck in flight and felt, in his word, shy. “It was a long time in my head so I thought I would celebrate in a different way,” he said. “Maybe next time. I will keep trying to score one more time.”

The Rangers posted the clip before the building had emptied.

THE FIRST RANGERS GOALTENDER TO SCORE A GOAL:

IGOR SHESTERKIN pic.twitter.com/k7ITHnvtza

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 2, 2026

Sullivan called it a great moment for a team and pointed to the raw emotion on the bench. Shesty, he said, makes so many timely saves that when he gets a night like this, the skaters get fired up. The next look will come the next time a coach empties a net and the puck dies on Shesterkin’s stick. He has already said he will shoot.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was the first NHL goalie to score a goal?

Billy Smith of the New York Islanders was the first, on Nov. 28, 1979, against the Colorado Rockies. He did not shoot it in. He was the last Islanders player to touch the puck before Colorado’s Rob Ramage put it into his own net, and the league credited Smith. The first goalie to shoot one in himself was Philadelphia’s Ron Hextall, on Dec. 8, 1987, against Boston.

Which goalie has scored the most NHL goals?

Martin Brodeur has three, the record. He shot one into an empty net in the 1997 playoffs against Montreal, was credited with a regular-season game-winner against Philadelphia on Feb. 15, 2000, when Daymond Langkow put it into his own net, and picked up a third on March 21, 2013, at Carolina. Hextall is next with two, both shots, one in the regular season and one in the 1989 playoffs.

Has a goalie ever scored on another goalie?

Once. Brodeur’s 2013 goal is the only one on record against a goalie who was still listed as being on the ice. Carolina’s Dan Ellis was leaving during a delayed penalty and had not reached the bench when Jordan Staal’s errant pass headed for the vacant net. Ellis tried to get back and failed. The NHL still carries him among the players on the ice, so Brodeur is credited with scoring on another goalie.

Have any goalie goals come in the Stanley Cup Playoffs?

Two of the 21. Hextall shot into an empty net against Washington on April 11, 1989, and Brodeur shot into an empty net against Montreal on April 17, 1997. The other 19, including Shesterkin’s, came in the regular season. No goalie has scored in a Stanley Cup Final game.

How does a goalie get credit for a goal he did not shoot?

If he is the last player on his team to touch the puck before an opponent directs it into the opponent’s own net, the goalie is credited, the same last-player rule that can award a goal to any skater. Eight of the 21 NHL goalie goals are those last-touch credits. The other 13 were empty-net shots the goalie took himself. A goalie can also be credited on the power play, as Evgeni Nabokov was in 2002 and Filip Gustavsson was in 2024.