PITTSBURGH -- After missing the past two games due to injury, Bryan Rust will be back in the lineup for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday afternoon when they take on the Ottawa Senators in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
He will replace forward Conor Sheary who will be coming out of the lineup to make room.
Rust will start the game skating on the third-line alongside Nick Bonino and Carter Rowney.
But while the Penguins are getting a little bit of help on the injury front with the return of Rust, forward Patric Hornqvist and defenseman Justin Schultz will remain out of the lineup.
Schultz took part in the pre-game warm-up but did not take any line rushes and returned to the locker room five minutes before anyone else. With Schultz and Chad Ruhwedel (injured in Game 4) out of the lineup that means Mark Streit will be in and skate alongside Ian Cole on the team’s third pairing.
Hornqvist did not take part in the pre-game warm-up.
As for the Senators, they will go with seven defensemen on Sunday with Ben Harpur drawing into the lineup.