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Pontiac native Bryan Rust steals the show in Game 7 of Eastern Conference Finals

MiHockey Staff
From the Penguins' official Facebook page
From the Penguins’ official Facebook page

 

By @MichaelCaples –

Steven Stamkos returned to the line-up for the Tampa Bay Lightning last night, ready to take on Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Yet it was Bryan Rust who stole the show and sent his team on to the Stanley Cup Final.

The Pontiac native scored both of the Penguins’ goals in a decisive Game 7 last night in Pittsburgh, in the process becoming a household name for the Steel City (if he wasn’t already).

Rust, a product of Honeybaked, USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program and Notre Dame, scored his first of the night on a wrister from the slot 1:55 into the second period.

The game-winning goal came from Rust being able to get his stick on a loose puck before Tampa goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy could snare it. The goal – scored at the 10:36 mark of the middle frame – came at the perfect time for the Penguins, after Jonathan Druin had tied the game just 30 seconds earlier.

With the two-goal outing, Rust became just the fourth player in Penguins team history and first rookie in team history to score multiple goals in a Game 7.

Per the Elias Sports Bureau, Rust is only the second rookie in history – the other is Jeremy Roenick – to score multiple goals in two series-clinching wins in a single postseason; he did the same against the New York Rangers on April 23.


Here are some of our favorite tweets from Rust’s night: