Buffalo, NY (Betting Express) - Pekka Rinne recorded his first career shutout as Nashville scored twice in the third period for a 2-0 win over Buffalo at HSBC Arena.

"The guys did a great job boxing out those Buffalo guys so I could see the puck," Rinne said. "There was a couple times I got lucky, I didn't see the puck, it just hit me. That's part of the game, you need those bounces."

Rinne, who was a perfect 3-0-0 entering the game, stopped all 30 shots he faced while Jason Arnott and J.P. Dumont tallied for the Predators, who have won three of five including three in a row on the road.

The whitewash was sweet revenge for Nashville, which had been outscored by a 15-6 margin by Buffalo in the last two meetings, an 8-4 road setback on February 27, 2008 and a 7-2 home defeat on December 21, 2006.

Ryan Miller made 25 saves for the Sabres, who have dropped two in a row and were blanked at home for the second time in five contests.

"We turned the puck over, there wasn't much going on in the game," said Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff. "There wasn't much going on for 40 minutes. There wasn't a lot of energy by anybody."

Nashville finally got on the board at 8:07 of the third period, when Arnott managed to flip a loose puck over Miller. Preds defenseman Greg DeVries unloaded a left-point shot which Miller kicked out, but Arnott scored on his second-chance rebound

Dumont followed at 10:40, knocking home another rebound, this time off a shot from Shea Weber.

Buffalo skated with an extra attacker for the final 1:47, but could not generate any good chances for the remainder of the game.

The first two periods passed without a goal and without much excitement. Rinne made 19 saves while Miller was perfect on 16 shots.

"It seemed like that was one of the goals that was going to be it tonight," said Arnott. "It just wasn't happening for both ends. It was one of those boring games, just a lot of defensive plays."

Game Notes

Arnott has five goals in his last five games and a goal in each of the last three...Sabres forward Ales Kotalik returned after a seven-game absence due to a hamstring injury. Buffalo missed defenseman Craig Rivet due to an upper body injury and forward Patrick Kaleta was out with an undisclosed injury suffered on Saturday...Rinne improved to 5-1-0 in nine games (seven starts) over two- plus seasons...Philadelphia shut down the Sabres, 3-0, on November 21.