"You always hope to get one, but I didn't think I would get one any time soon," he grinned. "It feels pretty good. Can't say I expected it, but I mean, it's always fun. Just found a way to get open in certain situations, and I was lucky enough to get a penalty shot."
Rust netted the first of 13 total goals on the night when he received a beautiful pass from Evgeni Malkin just 1:45 into the game that he re-directed into the net.
"That's an unbelievable feed," Rust said. "I was trying to yell; I don't even think he heard me. But he definitely saw me and he put it right on my tape and I was able to put it in."
The penalty shot was Rust's second goal of the night, and it came at a crucial time as the Pens were holding onto a 6-5 lead in the third period. So yeah, Rust admitted he was feeling the pressure.
"My heart was probably racing faster than it did all game," he laughed.
Rust skated in, faked to his backhand and lifted the puck up and over Sens goalie Craig Anderson to convert the penalty shot.
"That's kind of my go-to move and I just stuck with it the whole way," Rust explained. "(Goalie coach Mike Bales) usually gives us a pretty good idea of what the goalie likes to do, and I just kind of took that and ran with it."
Rust's third goal came with more nerves and some controversy. The puck bounced to him right as he was entering the offensive zone, where he had an empty net. Not only was he feeling the pressure to get the hat trick, but the Sens used their coach's challenge to see if it was offside.
"I was a little bit (nervous), but I knew I had enough time to kind of just settle it down and put it in," Rust said. "I was a little bit more nervous when they were reviewing it."
The crowd didn't react right away for that reason, but Rust joked it might have been something else.
"I just think they didn't think I would get a hat trick," he laughed.
