Rookie forward Bryan Rust scored a pair of second-period goals and Matt Murray stopped 16 shots to lift Pittsburgh to a 2-1 victory over Tampa Bay in game seven of the NHL Eastern Conference finals on Thursday night, sending the Penguins to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 2009.
Pittsburgh will host Western Conference champions San Jose in game one of the best-of-seven decider on Monday night (Tuesday AEST).
Jonathan Drouin scored his fifth goal of the playoffs for the Lightning and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 37 saves, but it wasn't enough to send Tampa Bay back to the finals for a second straight year.
In a building littered with stars, it was the relentlessness of 24-year-old Rust and the steadiness of 22-year-old goaltender Matt Murray that provided the difference.
"I'm in that mode where I'm getting the bounces and the breaks right now," Rust said.
The Penguins rallied from a 3-2 deficit by controlling the final two games of the best-of-seven series, winning 5-2 in Tampa Bay in Game 6, then backing it up with what coach Mike Sullivan said "might have been the most complete 60-minute effort we had".
In disarray in December when Sullivan took over for Mike Johnston, the Penguins have sprinted through April and May and will head into June with a chance to win the franchise's fourth Cup, one that would serve as a bookend to their last triumph seven years ago when stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were still in their early 20s.
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