PITTSBURGH Six months ago, the playoffs weren’t a given for the Penguins. With 10 seconds left in Game 7, a winwasn’t, either.Now, they’re headed to the Stanley Cup Final.Pittsburgh, behind goals by Bryan Rust and after a frantic third period,beat Tampa Bay 2-1 in the deciding game of the Eastern Conference finals on Thursday. The San Jose Sharks are waiting.MORE: Nothing was settled until the last seconds of the game; with the Lightning making their final push, Nick Bonino inexplicablyiced the puck and set up a faceoff in Joc Pederson Jersey Pittsburgh’s zone with 14.3 seconds left. Eventually, the puck left the zone, and Carl Hagelin seemed to end the game with an empty net goal.Nope. The puck was ruled to have hit the bench, Hagelin’s goal was disallowed, there was another faceoff in Pittsburgh’s zone and action stayed in the corner until the horn sounded.The final shot count: 39-17, Pittsburgh. It was a fitting end to a series that went the distance despite Pittsburgh’s puck-po Julio Urias Jersey se sion dominance.After a fairly even first period more about Steven Stamkos’ return to the lineup andeach teamavoiding mistakes than anything else,Pittsburgh wholly dominated Tampa Bay in the second. Through 40 minutes, Pittsburgh held a 29-10 lead overall in shots and a 49-26 lead in 5-on-5 shot attempts.MORE: Heading into the third, though, the Penguins’ lead was just 2-1; goals by Rust sandwiched a spectacular shot by Jonathan Drouin that beat Matt Andre Ethier Jersey Murray. Andrei Vasilevskiy single-handedly kept the Lightning in the series at times; they were outshot by an average of more than 10 per game, and plenty of those were high-quality.Rust, a rookie, has five goals in the playoffs and nearly added a sixth early in the third; Braydon Coburn either made a terrific play on Rust’s pseudo-breakaway or held him, depending on which team you’d ask.It didn’t stop Los Angeles Dodgers Jersey there for Rust. He had two more prime chances with about 13 minutes left; he led the way on Pittsburgh’s first effective shift in Tampa Bay’s zone in some time and, at one point, fired a puck over Vasilevskiy’s head.Pittsburgh had another prime chance to gain breathing roomwith 9:22 remaining. On the power play because of a puck-over-the-gla s penalty, the Pensgenerated one shot, and that came while Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman was using Valtteri Filppula’s stick.The Penguins, thanks in part to a pair of steals by Evgeni Malkin,managed Ross Stripling Jersey to carry play for the next two minutes, with Vasilevskiy making another huge pad save on Conor Sheary. Mixed in there was Murray’s biggest save of the night.From then on, the game plan for Pittsburgh was largely “Hang on for dear life.” It worked. The Final starts here Monday.