Penguins beat Rangers in shootout

The homecoming of Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky didn't end in regulation, or overtime.

Pittsburgh's Dustin Jeffrey scored the only goal of the shootout to give the Penguins a 4-3 victory last night at Madison Square Garden in the first game for both teams after the All-Star break.

In his first game back from a broken hand suffered Dec. 15, Callahan tipped in Michael Del Zotto's power-play point shot with 12.5 seconds left in the second period to tie the Penguins at 3 after Jordan Staal was banished with a match penalty for decking Brandon Prust.

That was enough to earn the Rangers at least a point. And Brandon Dubinsky, the other Rangers returnee, who had missed five games with a stress fracture in his left shin, deflected a puck out of the air to Artem Ansimov for the Rangers' second goal at 1:41 of the second period at Madison Square Garden last night.

Through 65 minutes, the Rangers couldn't dominate a depleted Penguins team that was missing its leading scorers, Sidney Crosby (out the last 10 games with a concussion) and Evgeni Malkin (sinus infection), as well as center Mark Letestu (knee injury from a rut in the morning skate at the Garden).

Leading 2-0 after 1:41 of the second period, the Rangers faded and the Penguins started to roll.

When Kris Newbury was sent off for an elbow, the Pens cut the lead to one just 10 seconds later. Rookie Jeffrey's slapper hit a crouching Dan Girardi and the puck flew over Henrik Lundqvist's shoulder at 5:30.

Mike Rupp tied the score with a gimme on the rebound of Max Talbot's shot that Lundqvist left softly in the crease at 10:36. Chris Kunitz gave the Penguins the lead at 14:12 when Jeffrey won a faceoff in the defensive zone, and Zbynek Michalek's slapper from the point was tipped by Kunitz into the corner of the net.

Prust, with his second goal in two games, had opened the scoring at 3:52 of the first. Brian Boyle bulled past Staal behind the net and backhanded a pass to Wojtek Wolski, whose shot hit Brooks Orpik and Prust pounced on the rebound for his eighth of the season. It was the first shot on Marc-Andre Fleury. The Rangers failed to connect on two power plays and were outshot 12-8.

That was not the fault of Callahan, who had 10 goals and 23 points in 32 games before missing the previous 19, or Dubinsky, who was in the midst of the best season of his career, with 17 goals and 21 assists in 47 games.

The returning duo almost scored when Dubinsky fed Callahan in front on the first power play, but Pascal Dupuis got enough of the right wing to force him to restrict his shot to a trickler that kissed the right post.

"It's the luck of the draw," Callahan had said about facing the Penguins, against whom he was injured. "I don't care who we're playing. It's frustrating when you see guys battling and you can't do anything to help them."

Dubinsky had cautioned against expecting too much. "It's not going to be easy," he said before the game. "I missed two weeks, at the same time, I feel like I've kept myself in pretty good shape."