When Bryan Rust speaks, he isn’t prone to ambiguity.
He gets to the point.
On the first day of Pittsburgh Penguins training camp Sept. 18 in Cranberry, the versatile top-six winger was asked what his goals were for the 2025-26 season.
“Dragging this team that nobody thinks can make the playoffs into the playoffs,” Rust said curtly.
Those bold ambitions were realized 205 days later as Rust and company qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 5-2 victory against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
For the first time since 2022, the Penguins — who many forecast to have another long summer — will participate in the postseason.
Goaltender Stuart Skinner, who returned to the lineup after recovering from a facial injury near his left eye that led to him being scratched for a game Sunday, unofficially stopped 19 of 21 shots, improving his record to 23-16-9.
“It’s just excitement,” Skinner said Tuesday in PPG Paints Arena when asked about the prospect of qualifying. “We’re excited for the opportunity to do that. … I know that everyone in this room is going to do absolutely everything we possibly can just to make sure that that happens. Just pure excitement.”
Further excitement was generated when the Philadelphia Flyers suffered a 6-3 loss at the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday. That result secured second place in the Metropolitan Division for the Penguins, along with home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Thursday’s triumph was achieved without the services of Penguins forward Connor Dewar, who was scratched with an undisclosed injury. The team labeled him as “day-to-day.”
Rust opened the scoring by registering his 29th goal of the season on his team’s first shot of the contest, 4 minutes, 53 seconds into regulation.
Stealing a puck at the right point of New Jersey’s zone, Penguins defenseman Kris Letang fed a pass to the slot for Penguins forward Egor Chinakhov. Veering a bit into the left circle, Chinakhov slipped a clever pass to the opposite dot where Rust one-touched a forehand shot to the near side past the glove of hapless goaltender Jake Allen.
Both teams exchanged scores throughout the second period, starting with Devils forward Paul Cotter’s ninth goal at the 9:51 mark off a breakaway.
Penguins forward Tommy Novak restored a lead with his 16th goal of the season — and first in 12 games — at 11:43 of the second frame.
Gaining the offensive zone on the right wing, Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson fed the puck to the slot for Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin, who offloaded it low in the right circle, where Novak immediately swiped a forehand shot over Allen’s glove on the near side.
Chinakhov got in on the act nine seconds later with his 21st goal.
After Penguins forward Sidney Crosby won the ensuing faceoff after Novak’s goal, Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea corralled the puck, retreated to the Penguins’ right circle and airmailed a pass to the far blue line. Chasing the puck as it trickled through New Jersey’s slot and into the right circle, Chinakhov gathered it, fended off Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler and snapped a backhander past Allen’s glove on the near side.
Devils forward Jack Hughes’ 26th goal came at 15:07 of the second with a wrister from the high slot that glanced off Penguins defenseman Parker Wotherspoon’s stick.
Malkin generated his 19th goal at 6:50 of the third period.
From the left point of New Jersey’s zone, Shea banked the puck to the end boards, where Chinakhov used his right skate to kick a pass to the left of the crease. Crosby accepted the puck and dragged it across the front of the crease but was unable to get a true shot off from the right of the blue paint. After Crosby fired the puck into Allen’s backside, Malkin barged in from the left circle to clean up the rebound with a forehand shot.
Karlsson capped the scoring with his 15th goal on an empty net at 16:58 of the final frame.