Rust Sets New Career-High As Penguins Defeat Devils, 4-2

In a season full of lows for the Pittsburgh Penguins, there have been some bright spots.

And their top players have one of them.

On Friday, the Penguins rallied from a two-goal deficit and scored four unanswered goals to defeat the New Jersey Devils, 4-2. And their top players led the way.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and two points, Sidney Crosby scored the game-winner, and Bryan Rust set a new career-high when he scored his 29th goal of the season on the empty net in the waning minutes of the third period. Newly recalled forward Valtteri Puustinen also added a power-play goal.

It was quite the night for the big guys. And Rust continues to prove why he's one of the more underrated wingers in the game.

"For me, it's special," Rust said of setting his new career-high in goals. "Obviously, the team success is first, and you want to win games, win championships. But, second to that is personal success, so anytime you can hit new milestones and get new career-highs - especially after 10 years - that kind of means you're probably doing something right."

The Devils got off to a great start in this one. They scored their first goal just 15 seconds into the game, when forward Erik Haula managed to get behind the Penguins' defense for a breakaway opportunity and didn't miss. They went up 2-0 just six minutes later on an Ondrej Palat goal just after the expiration of a Devils' power play.

"We didn't have the start that we wanted," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "That's hockey. What I loved about tonight was the resilience, or the certain resolve, where we didn't let it snowball. And it could have."

But, as Sullivan said, it didn't snowball - and a lot of that had to do with the Penguins' power play. 

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After Malkin cut the Devils' lead to one before the end of the first period, the Penguins ...