Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
There’s been a spike in goalie fights in the NHL this season, and on Tuesday, Igor Shesterkin and Jacob Markstrom dropped the gloves when the Rangers faced off against the Devils. It ended up being a very one-sided tilt dominated by the former, who reaped the benefits of training with a pro boxer he gave props to after the game.
The Rangers were the first team in the Eastern Conference to be eliminated from playoff contention this season, and they’ve been playing for nothing but pride since they sealed that fate with ten games left on the schedule toward the end of March.
They have plenty of incentive to lose as many games as possible in order to increase their odds of landing a pick near the top of this year’s NHL Draft, and they were doing a pretty solid job on the tanking front when you consider the loss that knocked them out of the playoffs was their sixth straight defeat.
However, New York had won two games in a row entering Tuesday night’s showdown with the Devils, and they managed to extend their winning streak to three with a 4-1 victory at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers have shown they’re not going down without a fight, and Igor Sheserkin drove that point home by getting into a literal fight with another netminder who might have thought twice about throwing down if he was aware of his opponent’s offseason workout regimen.
Igor Shesterkin trained with a pro boxer in the offseason before dominating Jacob Markstrom in a one-sided goalie fight
NHL fans entered the current season dealing with a goalie fight drought that stretched back to 2020, as the bout between Edmonton’s Mike Smith and Calgary’s Cam Talbot during a very heated installment of the Battle of Alberta marked the most recent instance of two guys at that position going toe-to-toe.
There was evidence that suggested the NHL had directed its officials to prevent those donnybrooks from unfolding (a clip of Marc-Andre Fleury’s unsuccessful attempt to go after Jordan Binnington was the smoking gun), but it appears the league thankfully had a change of heart this season.
In January, Sergei Bobrovsky and Alex Nedeljkovic brought the dry spell to a merciful end, although it was pretty clear neither of them was particularly prepared for that moment based on how it unfolded.
In February, Jeremy Swayman and Andrei Vasilevskiy got in on the action during the Stadium Series showdown between the Bruins and the Lightning, and they both displayed a bit more competency.
That brings us to Tuesday night’s game between the Rangers and the Devils. New York had a 4-1 lead midway through the third period when Paul Cotter ran into Igor Shesterkin while driving toward the crease, which led to a scuffle where the latter made a beeline for the forward behind the net.
Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom took exception to Shesterkin’s decision to go after his teammate, and while he decided to drop the gloves, he ended up regretting that decision after getting thoroughly outclassed by the 30-year-old Russian who pummeled him with a flurry of blows.
Shesterkin did some shadow boxing when he skated onto the ice after being named the first star in a victory where he stopped all but one of the 23 shots he faced, and after the contest, he shouted out the boxing coach who prepared him for the moment.
#NYR Igor Shesterkin: “I’d like to thank my boxing coach…” 😁 pic.twitter.com/BurgJXCgEb
— Mollie Walker (@MollieeWalkerr) April 1, 2026
The coach in question is Sergey Novikov, a native of Belarus who won a bronze medal at the European Championships in 2013 before embarking on a professional career where he’s posted a 14-0 record (he was crowned the ABF InterContinental Heavyweight champion in 2023).
Novikov also works as a boxing coach in Miami, and Shesterkin has seemingly spent a while preparing for what unfolded on Tuesday based on a video of him sparring that was uploaded in September.
It’s safe to say the training paid off.