At the 2023 NHL All-Star Skills Competition, Ilya Sorokin had to shoot pucks all the way down the ice in an attempt to score.
He performed pitifully, leading Igor Shesterkin — his partner in the competition and best friend — to joke that he should have been the one shooting pucks.
Sorokin, on Saturday, had the last laugh.
At the tail end of the Islanders’ 7-4 win over the Predators, Steven Stamkos missed an attempted pass to Brady Skjei after a save and the puck slowly trickled down the ice and into an empty net.
Sorokin, who’d stopped the puck off Jonathan Marchessault’s shot, got credit for his first career goal.
“I knew I’d do it before Igor,” Sorokin cracked afterward.
He became the third goaltender to score in a game this season, Pittsburgh’s Alex Nedeljkovic and Minnesota’s Filip Gustavsson being the others.
Only 16 other goalies have scored in league history.
“It was part of my bucket list, scoring a goal in my career,” said Isles coach Patrick Roy, who had 45 assists but zero goals in his Hall of Fame career. “… Hit the post once, I think. Scored [when] there was no more time. But anyway, I guess I was not the best goaltender out of my net. Would’ve been nice, but I didn’t have that shot.”
Sorokin, of course, is far from the best puck-handling goalie in the league. And though Shesterkin has been trying to score for years, this came down more to dumb luck than any skill.
“I never think about scoring goals,” Sorokin said. “It’s a moment, [it] happens. It’s a hockey game. [Stuff] happens.”
Sorokin, who stopped 23 of 27 shots in what wasn’t a particularly strong performance prior to the goal, said he never scored in his KHL career. Now he has something few other goalies do: a first NHL goal puck to frame.
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“To be honest, I was not sure of the goal,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau said. “We were kind of questioning it on the bench, we were not sure if he was the last guy who touched the puck, but still satisfying.
“We watched him in the All-Star competition a couple years ago not even close to shooting it in. I guess that’s a different way to score, but it’s his first goal and we’re all super happy for him.”
Anthony Duclair was benched for an eight-minute stretch in the third period, with Roy saying he expected more from him.
“He is OK,” Roy said. “I’m just not happy with his play.”
