Thursday, 31 January 2013 23:00

Written by Dave Molinari

Final score: Penguins 3, Rangers 0.

Why it matters: The Penguins rebounded from a miserable performance in a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders with a reasonably solid effort and, in the process, earned their second three-goal victory of the season at Madison Square Garden over an opponent many predicted will challenge the Penguins for first place in the Atlantic Division.

In a nutshell: Goalie Tomas Vokoun turned aside 28 shots en route to his 49th career shutout, although he also got lucky when a couple of New York shots caromed off goalposts behind him. Perhaps more important, the Penguins finally snapped a run of 16 consecutive failed power plays when James Neal tipped in a Sidney Crosby shot 28 seconds into the third period to give them a 2-0 lead.

Turning point: The Penguins beat Henrik Lundqvist, New York's all-world goalie, with their first shot for the second time this season, as Evgeni Malkin scored from the outer edge of the right circle just 84 seconds into the game to put his team in front to stay.

Under the radar: Defenseman Paul Martin rebounded from an awful performance against the Islanders with a strong showing, as he logged a team-high 26 minutes, 23 seconds of ice time and tied for the second-most shots on the team with three.

The brightest star: Vokoun didn't have to make many exceptional saves, in part because the guys in front of him were responsible and diligent in their own end, but he stopped everything he had to, and it's hard to improve on that.

The last word: Vokoun, crediting the Penguins with good work in their own end: "It's going to sound strange, but the game was kind of easy for me. For the most part, we were where we needed to be (defensively). We didn't let them go east-west. All the shots were coming straight at me. That makes it a lot easier for a goalie. That's something we hadn't been doing in the past games, and it cost us."