from Frank Seravalli of TSN,

The voice was familiar - loud enough to overcome the nervous buzz of 18,534 nail-biting souls, but not startling.

Bryan Rust hopped over the boards and jetted across the blue line with a perfectly placed Brian Dumoulin pass when he heard it.

“I didn’t think ‘Rusty’ saw me,” Sidney Crosby said. “I just kind of let him know I was there.”

No thought required. It was the easiest, if not the biggest, assist of Rust’s career.

The puck slid to Crosby on the freshly shaved overtime ice smoother than a new stick of deodorant.

“When one of the best players in the world is wide open,” Rust explained, “you definitely look for him.”

Crosby dropped to one knee to put the maximum amount of muscle on the disc, which was still bouncing after it dropped from the shelf behind Andrei Vasilevskiy. Neither Vasilevskiy, nor a frozen Victor Hedman had a prayer to stop it.

In a highlight-reel lens, it was a vintage Crosby image.

continued

Watch the goal below...