The Penguins' crowd of 9,344 fans for Game 2 at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday was the largest crowd for any of Pittsburgh's sports teams since the start of the pandemic over a year ago.
The Steelers finished the season with a limit of 5,500 fans, and the Pirates have currently have a cap of 7,672 fans, though they're averaging 5,727 per game this season.
The Penguins' crowd was the result of the state of Pennsylvania increasing capacity limits for indoor-gatherings to 50 percent on Monday, doubling the previous limit of 25 percent.
The change in energy at PPG Paints Arena for Game 2 was evident before the puck was even dropped, with fans cheering and chanting "Let's go Pens" before and after the anthem.
"It was electric," Mike Sullivan said of the atmosphere. "It's so exciting. It seems like it's been so long that we've had that type of an amount of fans in the building. That's the most we've had to this point."
One of the first big moments of the game was Brandon Tanev's hit on Brock Nelson in the first two minutes of the game, drawing loud cheers and surely providing a bit of energy for the fourth line, which was flying for the rest of the shift.
"I know our players, they feed off it," Sullivan said. "They love the energy that the fanbase brings. I think it helped us with the start tonight. It's such a great environment. It's certainly not the same when they're not there. And I know our players and our whole organization, for that matter, appreciate all the support."
Tristan Jarry drew loud applause for many of his 37 saves, with "Jar-ry!" chants breaking out throughout the game.
"It's awesome, it's exciting," Jarry said of the chants. "It's exciting to hear them and you know how passionate our fans are and how much they get into the game. I think that's awesome. We love to see it. We love when they're behind us like that."
The crowd was perhaps at its loudest (well, other than after the goals from Rust and Jeff Carter) in the final television timeout with 5:24 remaining in the game while the Penguins were clinging to the 2-1 lead.
"I think you saw down the stretch there in the third, they were getting loud," Rust said. "They gave our team a lot of life, a lot of energy to keep pushing, keep fighting."
"That was cool to be a part of," Mike Matheson said of the fan support throughout the game. "The building was going crazy. Anytime you look up and see the towels spinning with that many people in the building, especially with everything going on in the world, the fact that we haven't been able to have everybody in the building through the season, to see that gives you chills. It really puts a spark in our team. It was amazing to have all of the fans being such a big part of the game."
When Rust closed his hand on the puck and tossed it out of the Penguins' zone with 1:28 remaining in the game, he put the Penguins on the penalty kill to finish the game.
"You saw how much the crowd got into it," Rust said of the penalty kill. "I think our guys fed off of that emotion."
The fans stayed in the stands through the final horn and three stars announcements.
When Jarry came out for the No. 1 star, the fans made their appreciation for his bounce-back performance clear.
"It's awesome," Jarry said of the feeling when he skated out for the lap at the end. "It's awesome to have our fans back in the building and have as many as we do. I think that gives us a huge boost and it boosts our team. You see the role that they play out there, being able to be behind us. I think that helps us a lot."
