Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin and Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin share a city and a friendship

SUNRISE, Fla. — They grew up approximately 2,500 miles apart — a 49-hour drive — as the Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin was born in Mezhdurechensk, Russia, and the Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin was born in Moscow.

Even when they tended net in the KHL — Sorokin for CSKA Moscow and Shesterkin for St. Petersburg SKA — it requires nearly an eight-hour drive to travel the 438 miles between those cities.

The All-Star goalies had to come to New York to live relatively close to each other, to get to share Christmas together, to vacation together in Miami before Friday night’s NHL Skills Competition and Saturday’s NHL All-Star Game at FLA Live Arena.

The goalies, both 27, met 11 years ago and developed a strong friendship. Sorokin is the godfather to Shesterkin’s child. They’ve been teammates on Russian national teams and longtime on-ice rivals.

Even they think it’s an unlikely story: Two Russian teenagers dreaming of hockey success who have grown up to be star goalies in New York, with each one his franchise’s most important player. Each was selected to his first NHL All-Star Game the same season, too.

“It’s crazy,” Sorokin said.

It’s a movie script waiting to happen, a buddy-buddy comedy.

At Thursday’s media day, the two took turns insulting the other’s shooting abilities. They competed in Friday’s Tendy Tandem, in which one goalie becomes a shooter and the other stays in net.

“I hope I’m the shooter,” Sorokin said. “He’s a bad shooter.”

That, of course, was relayed to Shesterkin.

“Everybody knows [who should shoot]. Except him,” Shesterkin said. “Can somebody explain to him? Maybe he don’t understand what he needs to do.”

Still, Sorokin was the shooter and went 0-for-5 — no surprise to Shesterkin, who stopped four shots before Sarah Nurse of the Canadian national team slipped one past his left pad.

In another competition, Shesterkin claimed to be the funnier of the two.

“It’s 50-50,” Shesterkin said. “Sometimes he has his good days, but usually he has bad days. His jokes are terrible.”

Sorokin then snuck up behind Shesterkin’s podium just as he was asked to recount how the two met. Sorokin, with a grin, said something in Russian. Shesterkin laughed.

The two share so much, not the least being Russian twentysomethings trying to acclimate to life in New York and learn English.

“We try to help each other out,” Shesterkin said. “Not only in hockey but in life, too. If something happens, we can call each other.”

Plenty has happened since they arrived in New York.

Shesterkin, in his third full season with the Rangers, is 21-8-7 with a 2.45 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage. He backstopped the Rangers to last season’s Eastern Conference Final, where they lost to the Lightning. He’s the reigning Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL’s top goalie.

Sorokin also is in his third NHL season. He joined the Islanders in 2020 but was ineligible to play during their playoff bubble run to the NHL semifinals, where they lost to the Lightning. He did play in the following season’s playoffs as the Islanders again lost to the Lightning in the NHL’s final four.

This season, he’s Vezina-worthy at 16-16-4 with a 2.38 GAA and a .923 save percentage.

“He’s been our guy that, probably, gives us the most chance to win every night,” Islanders All-Star center Brock Nelson said. “His numbers speak for themselves.”

The two may be friends but they’re also competitors, and Sorokin surely would like to match Shesterkin’s Vezina. And Shesterkin’s teammates know he wants to show he’s the best.

“He doesn’t say it but I’m sure it’s true,” Rangers All-Star defenseman Adam Fox of Jericho said. “Anyone who is friends with someone else is going to have that feeling. Shesty’s super-competitive.”

Yet Sorokin vs. Shesterkin in the NHL has been rare. The Rangers and Islanders played three times this season; only in the last meeting, a 5-3 win for the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 22, did both goalies start.

“When I play against him, every game is war,” Sorokin said. “The friendship is over when I play against him. After the game, yes, I can meet him, I can laugh and it’s no problem. But on the ice, no friends.”

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.