diff --git a/spring-test/src/main/java/org/springframework/test/web/servlet/result/HeaderResultMatchers.java b/spring-test/src/main/java/org/springframework/test/web/servlet/result/HeaderResultMatchers.java
index 8d1607129e6..59c3d30075d 100644
--- a/spring-test/src/main/java/org/springframework/test/web/servlet/result/HeaderResultMatchers.java
+++ b/spring-test/src/main/java/org/springframework/test/web/servlet/result/HeaderResultMatchers.java
@@ -16,19 +16,17 @@
 
 package org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result;
 
-import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
 import java.util.Arrays;
-import java.util.Date;
 import java.util.List;
-import java.util.Locale;
-import java.util.TimeZone;
 
 import org.hamcrest.Matcher;
 
+import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
 import org.springframework.mock.web.MockHttpServletResponse;
 import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.ResultMatcher;
 
 import static org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert.assertThat;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
 import static org.springframework.test.util.AssertionErrors.assertEquals;
 import static org.springframework.test.util.AssertionErrors.assertTrue;
 
@@ -127,7 +125,7 @@ public class HeaderResultMatchers {
 	}
 
 	/**
-	 * Assert the primary value of the named response header as a date String,
+	 * Assert the primary value of the named response header parsed into a date
 	 * using the preferred date format described in RFC 7231.
 	 * <p>The {@link ResultMatcher} returned by this method throws an
 	 * {@link AssertionError} if the response does not contain the specified
@@ -137,12 +135,17 @@ public class HeaderResultMatchers {
 	 */
 	public ResultMatcher dateValue(final String name, final long value) {
 		return result -> {
-			SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss zzz", Locale.US);
-			format.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));
-			String formatted = format.format(new Date(value));
 			MockHttpServletResponse response = result.getResponse();
-			assertTrue("Response does not contain header '" + name + "'", response.containsHeader(name));
-			assertEquals("Response header '" + name + "'", formatted, response.getHeader(name));
+			String headerValue = response.getHeader(name);
+			assertNotNull("Response does not contain header '" + name + "'", headerValue);
+
+			HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
+			headers.setDate("expected", value);
+			headers.set("actual", headerValue);
+
+			assertEquals("Response header '" + name + "'='" + headerValue + "' " +
+							"does not match expected value '" + headers.getFirst("expected") + "'",
+					headers.getFirstDate("expected"), headers.getFirstDate("actual"));
 		};
 	}
 
diff --git a/spring-test/src/test/java/org/springframework/test/web/servlet/result/HeaderResultMatchersTests.java b/spring-test/src/test/java/org/springframework/test/web/servlet/result/HeaderResultMatchersTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ee9150665d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-test/src/test/java/org/springframework/test/web/servlet/result/HeaderResultMatchersTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2002-2018 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.springframework.test.web.servlet.result;
+
+import java.time.ZoneId;
+import java.time.ZonedDateTime;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
+import org.springframework.mock.web.MockHttpServletRequest;
+import org.springframework.mock.web.MockHttpServletResponse;
+import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MvcResult;
+import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.StubMvcResult;
+
+/**
+ * Unit tests for {@link HeaderResultMatchers}.
+ * @author Rossen Stoyanchev
+ */
+public class HeaderResultMatchersTests {
+
+	private final HeaderResultMatchers matchers = new HeaderResultMatchers();
+
+	private final MockHttpServletResponse response = new MockHttpServletResponse();
+
+	private final MvcResult mvcResult =
+			new StubMvcResult(new MockHttpServletRequest(), null, null, null, null, null, this.response);
+
+
+	@Test // SPR-17330
+	public void matchDateFormattedWithHttpHeaders() throws Exception {
+
+		long epochMilli = ZonedDateTime.of(2018, 10, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, ZoneId.of("GMT")).toInstant().toEpochMilli();
+		HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
+		headers.setDate("myDate", epochMilli);
+		this.response.setHeader("d", headers.getFirst("myDate"));
+
+		this.matchers.dateValue("d", epochMilli).match(this.mvcResult);
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/spring-test/src/test/java/org/springframework/test/web/servlet/samples/standalone/resultmatchers/HeaderAssertionTests.java b/spring-test/src/test/java/org/springframework/test/web/servlet/samples/standalone/resultmatchers/HeaderAssertionTests.java
index 7f815d9bcb6..a23dc676b88 100644
--- a/spring-test/src/test/java/org/springframework/test/web/servlet/samples/standalone/resultmatchers/HeaderAssertionTests.java
+++ b/spring-test/src/test/java/org/springframework/test/web/servlet/samples/standalone/resultmatchers/HeaderAssertionTests.java
@@ -208,7 +208,8 @@ public class HeaderAssertionTests {
 
 	private void assertMessageContains(AssertionError error, String expected) {
 		String message = error.getMessage();
-		assertTrue("Failure message should contain: " + expected, message.contains(expected));
+		assertTrue("Failure message should contain [" + expected + "], actual is [" + message + "]",
+				message.contains(expected));
 	}