Martin Brodeur will now be yet another trivia answer.

It’s the way Penguins phenom Evgeni Malkin scored his first NHL goal on him that rankles Brodeur and prompted coach Claude Julien to call for protection by teammates.

“There’s no way that should have been a goal,” Brodeur said after the Devils beat the Penguins 2-1 Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

Jamie Langenbrunner’s third-period tally overcame Malkin’s lone Penguins score, the one that irritated Brodeur.

It was late in the second period when Malkin and Mark Recchi were joined by last year’s new star, Sidney Crosby. Brodeur stopped Recchi’s rightwing shot, then bent over to cover the puck at his knees. Malkin poked into Brodeur’s pads and the puck squirted through, into the net.

“You can’t have guys jabbing at me,” Brodeur said. “It’s all about protection of the goalie.

“The refs have to discourage guys from poking at goalies.” Julien had a different solution.

“It’s a referee’s judgement call,” Julien said.

“From what I could see, Mary had put his pad on the puck.

“But we need to do a better job protecting Marty in those situations and not let a guy like Malkin put his stick there. I’m not going to criticize the call. I say we have to do something to prevent that.” Brodeur was not likely to have to deal with that stuff last night. Scott Clemmensen was expected to receive his first start of the season when the Devils faced Nashville at the Meadowlands. But Malkin’s belated debut had been a lively topic.

New Devils captain Patirk Elias was Malkin’s linemate in Russia during the lockout and saw one common rookie flaw in Malkin’s game.

“The only thing I’m worried about is that he’s going to get killed out there. He keeps his head down and he likes to go through the middle,” Elias said Wednesday.

“But this was his first game. Still, there’s not as much room as in Europe.” Malkin showed flashes of what his reach can do, but seemed overconfident in his stick-handling. And his goal likely will be one of the ugliest he’ll score.

“I was very nervous at the beginning of the game,” Malkin said. “The first goal was very important.

In the future I think it’s going to easier.”

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The Devils visit Ottawa on Saturday and Pittsburgh again Tuesday. . . .

Brodeur notched his 450th victory. . . . John Madden recorded his 100th career assist. . . . For the second straight game, the Devils were shorthanded once in Pittsburgh.