NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tomas Vokoun has awakened from a nightmarish start.

Vokoun turned aside 27 shots as the Nashville Predators beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 Tuesday night, giving him back-to-back wins after starting the season 0-8-1.

	Carolina's Marek Malik tries to find room between Nashville's Patric Kjellberg and Cliff Ronning on Tuesday night.

"I'm just going out and having fun," Vokoun said. "It's always great when you win. The confidence comes when you're stopping the puck and you feel better."

Earlier in the season, Vokoun let in several soft goals and was sent down to Milwaukee of the IHL twice. After working with coach Mitch Korn and a sports psychologist, Vokoun came back to the Predators and beat St. Louis Sunday for his first victory.

"I felt bad for him when he had a couple rough games," Predators forward Scott Walker said. "It's very nice to see him bounce back.".

Vokoun stopped Jeff O'Neill twice on second-period breakaways.

"It's very frustrating," O'Neill said. "He made great saves. I can't say that I'm Pavel Bure on breakaways, but he made good stops."

Rookies Richard Lintner and Randy Robitaille scored goals 44 seconds apart in the opening period for the Predators.

"They're both great players," Walker said. "Richard's got a heck of a shot, and Randy's always in the right spot and he knows how to finish."

The early deficit has become all too familiar for Carolina.

"We can't put our finger on why, but we've come out flat," Paul Ranheim said. "As the game went on, we picked it up. But it's like we need that kick in the butt."

Kimmo Timonen also scored and Ville Peltonen had two assists for Nashville, which extended its unbeaten string to six (3-0-3).

Lintner one-timed a slap shot from the right point past Arturs Irbe 12:09 into the game for his first NHL goal. Robitaille made it 2-0 at 12:53 on the rebound of Rob Valicevic's shot.

Gary Roberts cut the lead to 2-1 at 1:31 of the second with a rebound goal. Andrei Kovalenko, playing in his 500th NHL game, had an assist.

Timonen made it 3-1 with a wrist shot from the right circle midway through the second. Nolan Pratt cut the lead to 3-2 at the 3:20 mark of the third on a deflection of Paul Coffey's point shot.

"Any time you get two down early in the game in this league, these guys play good defense and we just didn't get a lot going," Roberts said. "Any time you dig yourself a hole like that it's tough to get out of it."

Vokoun made a glove save on Sami Kapanen's slap shot from center ice in the closing seconds to preserve the win.

Before the game, Hurricanes president and GM Jim Rutherford responded to unsigned center Keith Primeau's statement that Primeau would throw out the team's latest two-year, $6-million contract offer.

"Not a lot of people can throw $3 million in the trash," Rutherford said.