diff --git a/cli/tests/unit_node/http_test.ts b/cli/tests/unit_node/http_test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c32bf62f26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cli/tests/unit_node/http_test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+// Copyright 2018-2023 the Deno authors. All rights reserved. MIT license.
+
+import http from "node:http";
+import { assertEquals } from "../../../test_util/std/testing/asserts.ts";
+import { assertSpyCalls, spy } from "../../../test_util/std/testing/mock.ts";
+import { deferred } from "../../../test_util/std/async/deferred.ts";
+
+Deno.test("[node/http] ServerResponse _implicitHeader", async () => {
+  const d = deferred<void>();
+  const server = http.createServer((_req, res) => {
+    const writeHeadSpy = spy(res, "writeHead");
+    // deno-lint-ignore no-explicit-any
+    (res as any)._implicitHeader();
+    assertSpyCalls(writeHeadSpy, 1);
+    writeHeadSpy.restore();
+    res.end("Hello World");
+  });
+
+  server.listen(async () => {
+    const { port } = server.address() as { port: number };
+    const res = await fetch(`http://localhost:${port}`);
+    assertEquals(await res.text(), "Hello World");
+    server.close(() => {
+      d.resolve();
+    });
+  });
+
+  await d;
+});
diff --git a/ext/node/polyfills/http.ts b/ext/node/polyfills/http.ts
index ab5e2b438f..12d71277f0 100644
--- a/ext/node/polyfills/http.ts
+++ b/ext/node/polyfills/http.ts
@@ -485,7 +485,7 @@ export class ServerResponse extends NodeWritable {
     return this.#headers.has(name);
   }
 
-  writeHead(status: number, headers: Record<string, string>) {
+  writeHead(status: number, headers: Record<string, string> = {}) {
     this.statusCode = status;
     for (const k in headers) {
       if (Object.hasOwn(headers, k)) {
@@ -540,6 +540,11 @@ export class ServerResponse extends NodeWritable {
     // @ts-expect-error The signature for cb is stricter than the one implemented here
     return super.end(chunk, encoding, cb);
   }
+
+  // Undocumented API used by `npm:compression`.
+  _implicitHeader() {
+    this.writeHead(this.statusCode);
+  }
 }
 
 // TODO(@AaronO): optimize