Shesterkin scores Rangers' first goalie goal in win against Lightning
Becomes 18th goalie in NHL history to score, Dorofeyev also gets first for New York
By Dan Rosen
NHL.com Senior Writer
NEW YORK -- Igor Shesterkin scored his first career goalie goal and made 24 saves to lead the New York Rangers to a 5-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning in their home opener at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.
Shesterkin is the first goalie in Rangers' history to score a goal.
"That was a lot of fun, but to be honest, someone on the blue line, he screened me a little bit when I make the shot and I didn't see the puck land, so I didn't know can I celebrate or not," Shesterkin said. "I just started doing that when everyone was like fired up."
Shesterkin became the 18th goalie to score a goal, and it's the 21st goalie goal in NHL history, with 19 coming in the regular season and two in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He capped the scoring with an unassisted goal into the empty net at 17:26 of the third period for the 5-1 final.
"The way he played today and obviously the amount of chances that he's had to do that and now finally get it, it was great," Rangers center Mika Zibanejad said.
Pavel Dorofeyev scored a goal and picked up his first two points with the Rangers (1-1-0). Zibanejad also had a goal and an assist, Adam Fox had two assists and Eeli Tolvanen scored his first goal with the Rangers.
The Rangers (1-1-0) were 7-for-7 on the penalty kill and 1-for-2 on the power play.
It's a reversal from last season, when the Rangers were shut out in their first three home games and five of their first seven, going 0-6-1.
New York lost 3-0 against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Tuesday.
"We've talked about it," Zibanejad said of getting off to a good start at home. "You guys ask every time before for this game, and we talked about it from last year. We know it's important, and we know it's something that we've talked about as well. You want to get off to a good start at home. You want to feel good coming in and making sure that we find our game, we find our identity at home and that was a good first step."
Nikita Kucherov scored and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning (0-1-0), who lost their season opener.
"The disappointing thing for me is a coach, he understands you're going to lose games, you're going to win games, but it's how you go about that," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "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. That's what was disappointing, just the lack of pushback. Take away the score, that's not what I was worried about. That was disappointing."
Zibanejad gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 5:34 of the first period on the power play. Dorofeyev's shot from the right face-off circle hit the crossbar and bounced into the left circle to Zibanejad, who shot it in.
New York didn't score at home last season until 57 seconds into its fourth game.
"When we can score the first goal in the home opener against a really good team, I just think it gives us a boost of confidence as a group," Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. "That was a huge goal in the game, a big part of the game."
Dorofeyev extended it to 2-0 with his first goal with the Rangers at 10:51, a one-timer from the inside edge of the left circle off a pass from Oliver Bjorkstrand.
The Rangers acquired Dorofeyev from the Vegas Golden Knights for three draft picks on June 26 before signing him to a seven-year, $77 million contract ($11 million average annual value) on June 30. He led Vegas with 37 goals last season.
"Everyone wants to score; that's what we're getting paid for, just part of our job, you know," Dorofeyev said. "It obviously feels great when you get it sooner than later."
Tolvanen made it 3-0 at 1:40 of the second period. He took the puck off the right-wing wall and sent it into the slot for Will Cuylle. It never touched Cuylle and instead went in off Tampa Bay defenseman Charle-Edouard D'Astous' right leg.
Kucherov scored with a backhanded pass that went in off Noah Laba at 7:59 to it to 3-1, but Gabe Perreault got it back for the Rangers with a redirection goal, the puck going off his stick and skate at 16:01, to make it 4-1.
To Cooper's point on lack of pushback, the Lightning managed just six shots on goal in the third period despite being on the power play for nearly seven minutes and pulling Vasilevskiy twice to create a 6-on-4 power-play advantage midway through the period.
"We did a great job," Shesterkin said. "PK was awesome. We did an unbelievable job, especially against Tampa. It's one of the best power-play teams, against 'Kuch.' We played the right way, everyone did what they need to do, and we just worked for the team."
NOTES: The win was Shesterkin's 100th at Madison Square Garden in 177 games. He's the fourth-fastest goalie in Rangers history to record 100 home wins after Mike Richter (172 games), Eddie Giacomin (173) and Henrik Lundqvist (176). … Zibanejad recorded the first goal of the game for the 60th time with the Rangers and surpassed Chris Kreider (59) for the second-most instances in franchise history, behind only Rod Gilbert (72).
