Tomas Vokoun made 38 saves in his 17th NHL shutout, and Scott Nichol had a goal and assist for his first points of the season in the surging Nashville Predators’ 3–0 victory over the Rangers last night.

Vokoun, who allowed 13 goals in Nashville’s opening two losses, has starkly turned his early season around. He has been in the nets for each of the Predators’ three straight victories and stopped 91 of 93 shots.

The Rangers outshot the Predators in every period but lost for the fourth time in five games.

Nichol gave Nashville a 2–0 lead midway through the second period and then helped set up Jerred Smithson’s first of the season, a power-play goal with 1:48 left in the frame.Jason Arnott scored his second goal in the first period for the Predators, who have won the first two legs of a three-game swing through the New York metropolitan area.

Nashville edged the Islanders 2–1 in a shootout on Monday and will face the New Jersey Devils today.

Although they yielded only one power-play goal, the Rangers again took a slew of penalties. Nashville had seven man-advantage situations, including a 5-on-3 and two power plays that started in the final minute of one period and carried over.

The Rangers’ coach, Tom Renney, was incensed Monday when the Devils had a 7–1 power-play advantage in the Rangers’ 4–2 victory. The Rangers killed them all off, but didn’t find the same success in the matchup with the Predators.

The Predators’ lead grew to 3–0 when Smithson scored for the first time in 21 games, dating to March 14 of last season.

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DEVILS 2, PENGUINS 1 Evgeni Malkin’s first goal in his much-anticipated NHL debut didn’t prevent Martin Brodeur from achieving a milestone of his own: his 450th career victory.

Brodeur withstood Malkin’s first career goal to become only the third goaltender in league history to reach the 450-win mark, with Jamie Langenbrunner’s goal in the third period making the difference in the New Jersey Devils’ 2–1 victory over the Penguins on yesterday.

Malkin, one of the most awaited young players in recent seasons, was everything he was supposed to be despite missing nearly a month of play with a dislocated left shoulder. The 6-foot-4 center made exceptional passes, used his long reach to grab pucks and set up scoring chances. He also showed he could create scoring of his own by somehow finding a puck that Brodeur thought he had controlled and pushing it into the net at 18:38 of the second.

But adding Malkin to a lineup that already includes Sidney Crosby, the youngest player in the NHL history to score 100 points in a season, wasn’t enough to prop up a Penguins offense that has been surprisingly deficient with only 12 goals in five games and only two in their last three home games, all losses.