Rangers' Igor Shesterkin becomes 18th NHL goalie to score a goal - ESPN

The New York Rangers have had 93 different goaltenders since entering the NHL in the 1926-27 season. Thanks to Igor Shesterkin on Thursday night, one of them has finally scored a goal.

Shesterkin put the puck into an empty net at 17:26 of the third period to cap a 5-1 victory for the Rangers in their home opener against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He's the 18th goalie in NHL history to accomplish the feat.

«He's not just a great goalie. He's a great goal scorer now,» said winger Pavel Dorofeyev, who is tied with Shesterkin and three other Rangers for the team lead in goals.

With Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy pulled, defenseman John Carlson dumped the puck into the Rangers' zone. It bounced off the boards over to Shesterkin's crease. The goalie raised his stick slightly and then launched the puck down the ice while on one knee. Fans roared as they watched the puck glide into the empty net.

«I didn't see the puck go across the line,» said Shesterkin, who said he did hear the crowd when the goal was scored. «Then everyone started jumping on me.»

Shesterkin was mobbed by his teammates as the fans chanted «Igor, Igor!»

During his nine-year NHL career, Shesterkin has said scoring a goal in the NHL was an objective for him, having scored one in the Russian junior MHL as a 19-year-old while playing for Spartak Moscow in October 2013. He had come close on a few occasions before finally finding the net against Tampa Bay.

«I feel like a dozen times I've been on the bench thinking, 'OK, this one goes in' and he barely misses,» said center Mika Zibanejad, Shesterkin's longtime Rangers teammate. «With the amount of chances he's had to do that, and now finally get it, that was great.»

Coach Mike Sullivan said that Shesterkin «made