Bryan Rust, Penguins surge past Senators

PITTSBURGH -- It's difficult to stand out when a team scores eight goals, but Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bryan Rust did Monday.
Rust scored his first NHL hat trick to help the Penguins defeat the Ottawa Senators 8-5 at PPG Paints Arena.
After Evgeni Malkin extended the Penguins' lead to 6-4 at 1:05 of the third period, Dion Phaneuf scored the Senators' third power-play goal to cut it to 6-5 at 6:17.

Rust, who last scored a hat trick for Notre Dame in a 7-1 win against Alabama-Huntsville on Jan. 10, 2014, scored on a penalty shot for his second goal to make it 7-5 with 7:24 remaining before scoring a third time to push it to 8-5 with 2:28 remaining.
WATCH: All Senators vs. Penguins highlights
"I can't say I expected it," Rust said. "[The last time I scored a hat trick] was more of a blowout. The team wasn't as good. This game was just, find a way to get open in certain situations and I was lucky enough to get a penalty shot."
Goalie Mike Condon replaced Craig Anderson, who made 36 saves on 43 shots, between Rust's third-period goals.

Pittsburgh (16-7-3) has scored 19 goals in its past three games.
Ottawa (15-9-2) had won four consecutive road games since losing 3-1 to the Nashville Predators on Nov. 8.
"It was a weird game. Anything that could happen, happened," Senators coach Guy Boucher said. "This is a Stanley Cup winner here. We're talking about a powerhouse."
Trailing 4-2 midway through the second period, the Penguins scored three goals in 6:09 to take a 5-4 lead.
Forward Matt Cullen scored a shorthanded goal with a backhanded shot on a breakaway to cut Ottawa's lead to 4-3 at 8:28.
Phil Kessel tied it 4-4 with 5:47 remaining in the second and Justin Schultz scored 24 seconds later to give Pittsburgh a 5-4 lead.

In a back-and-forth first period, Rust scored to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 1:45. Malkin passed through Senators forward Chris Kelly and defenseman Mark Borowiecki to Rust darting through the right circle, where he shot past Anderson.
Kyle Turris tied it 1-1 at 8:18 of the first before Sidney Crosby scored his 17th goal in 20 games to make it 2-1 Penguins 27 seconds later.
The period ended tied 2-2 after Erik Karlsson scored his sixth goal with 6:16 remaining.
With Patric Hornqvist in the penalty box for slashing, Mark Stone gave the Senators a 3-2 lead 1:00 into the second period.
Mike Hoffman scored the Senators' second power-play goal of the period to extend the lead to 4-2 at 7:08.

Goalie Matt Murray replaced Fleury, who made 12 saves on 16 shots, following the goal.
Boucher said forward Curtis Lazar is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury sustained on a hit from Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin.

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Goal of the game

With the Penguins leading 5-4 early in the third period, Malkin extended the lead to two goals by splitting Stone and Borowiecki and backhanding a shot by Anderson.

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Save of the game

Turris set up Senators forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau with a chance to tie it 5-5 late in the second period. Pageau received the pass and skated in on Murray, but the goaltender closed his five-hole to deny Pageau's backhand shot with 3:00 left in the second.

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Highlight of the game

The Senators took a lead early in the second period when Karlsson took a slap shot off Phaneuf's stick that deflected over the goal and off the glass. The puck bounced back over the goal and behind Fleury, where Stone held off Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta to backhand it out of midair and into the net.

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Unsung moment of the game

Schultz took Pittsburgh's third penalty in 6:57 when he was called for interference 7:30 into the second period. With the Senators scoring on each of their previous two opportunities to take a 4-2 lead, surrendering a third power-play goal could have made the lead insurmountable. Instead, Cullen scored his shorthanded goal that helped fuel Pittsburgh's comeback.

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They said it

"It was more about maybe just trying to change the mindset of the 18 skaters in front of [Fleury]. Sometimes when you get in those situations, you make that type of a change and maybe you can provide a spark for the group." -- Penguins coach Mike Sullivan on pulling Fleury
"You could tell, really, from the first period that it was going to be one of these games and we couldn't find a way to seal it up and not give them the space that they worked really hard for." -- Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson

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Need to know

Anderson returned from a leave of absence taken Nov. 30 to be with his wife, Nicholle, who began cancer treatment. … Malkin had a goal and two assists to extend his point streak to six games (two goals, nine assists).

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What's next

Senators: At the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday (10:30 p.m. ET; CSN-CA, RDS, TSN5, NHL.TV)
Penguins: At the Florida Panthers on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-F, ROOT, NHL.TV)