Vokoun Earns First Shutout

Tomas Vokoun was supposed to spend most of this season in Milwaukee. Instead, the rookie is turning into a very adequate fill-in as the Nashville Predators’ No. 1 goaltender.

Vokoun stopped 31 shots for expansion team’s first shutout as the Predators ended a four-game winless streak with a 2-0 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes on Friday night at Nashville.

“The kid’s thrown into a situation where it’s kind of tough,” teammate Joel Bouchard said. “You ask him to be not only the No. 1 goalie, you ask him to be in the middle of a playoff race. . . . He’s doing well.”

Vokoun has filled in as Nashville’s top goalie with Mike Dunham still nursing an injured groin.

He rebounded from giving up five goals in an 8-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.

“It’s a great feeling,” Vokoun said, “but you just have to stay on the floor. We have a lot of games coming up.”

Cliff Ronning, playing against his former team, had a power-play goal for Nashville. Greg Johnson added an empty-net goal with less than a minute to play.

Chicago 3, New York Rangers 1--Mike Maneluk scored on a breakaway and Jocelyn Thibault stopped 31 shots at New York as the Blackhawks ended a seven-game winless streak.

Maneluk took advantage of a bad line change by New York to skate in alone on goalie Mike Richter and beat him at 4:48 of the third period with a wrist shot from 12 feet for his fifth goal of the season.

That broke a 1-1 tie and gave the Blackhawks only their fourth victory in 21 road games this season.

Tony Amonte added an empty-net goal for Chicago, his 24th, with three seconds left.

New Jersey 3, Tampa Bay 1--Brian Rolston had a goal and an assist as the Devils scored three second-period power-play goals at East Rutherford, N.J., in ending a three-game losing streak.

Petr Sykora and Denis Pederson also scored and Martin Brodeur faced only 20 shots as the Devils ended a four-game winless streak at home and won for only the second time in seven games.

Darcy Tucker scored for Tampa Bay, which has lost seven in a row and is 3-23-1 in its last 27.

Buffalo 2, Boston 1--Dominik Hasek made 33 saves and Brian Holzinger and Curtis Brown each scored a goal for the Sabres at Buffalo.

In recording his league-high 21st victory, Hasek ended a personal three-game home losing streak.

Dmitri Khristich scored for the Bruins, who have lost two in a row after a three-game winning streak. Byron Dafoe stopped 22 shots for Boston.

Montreal 3, Washington 0--Jeff Hackett made 23 saves at Washington for his first shutout of the season as the Canadiens won for the eighth time in 10 games.

Stephane Quintal scored in the first period, and Brian Savage and Mark Recchi added to the lead in the second. The Canadiens have given up only 18 goals in their last 10 games and have gone five games without giving up a power-play goal.

San Jose 3, Pittsburgh 2--Owen Nolan scored the game-winning goal with less than three minutes to play at San Jose. Nolan also assisted on the tying goal.