PITTSBURGH - The hours before the biggest game of Bryan Rust's life were restless. The nap he tried to sneak in never materialized. The Pittsburgh Penguins forward's mind was simply too busy.
"I was just sitting up there looking at the ceiling," Rust said.
Yet even those daydreams didn't compare to the reality: the rookie forward who began training camp hoping just to make the team scored both of Pittsburgh's goals in a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals on Thursday night.
Pittsburgh will host Western Conference champion San Jose in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night.