Wilsby pushed it to 2-0 at 11:59 of the third period. He deked around Rangers forward Reilly Smith at the blue line, skated down the slot, and beat Shesterkin with the wrist shot through traffic.
“Unbelievable first goal by Wilsby there,” Predators defenseman Luke Schenn said. “I don’t even know how you could dream of having a better goal than that. That was pretty special, and pretty elite skating on the blue line there. He was dancing and picked the corner.”
It was the first time the Rangers have been shut out this season.
“We’ve got to find ways to score goals,” New York forward Chris Kreider said. “They did a good job on the [penalty] kill. We got a few looks. They were obviously blocking a lot and getting in lanes, but we knew that going in so we needed to do more bad-angle shots. Stuff just thrown into the mud and jumping on the loose stuff. There were moments of it, and we did a better job of playing north, playing quickly and establishing some zone time.”
Rangers defenseman Urho Vaakanainen made his team debut after being acquired in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks for former captain Jacob Trouba on Dec. 8, while forward Artemi Panarin missed his second consecutive game because of an upper-body injury.
NOTES: Rangers forward Kaapo Kakko returned to the lineup after he was a healthy scratch in a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Sunday. Kakko finished with three shots on goal in 10:14 of ice time. … Predators defenseman Roman Josi missed his third consecutive game because of a lower-body injury.