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PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma wants his high-powered team to get used to playing tight-checking playoff hockey before the post-season begins next month. St. Louis doesnt need the lure of the playoffs as an excuse to get stingy. The space-eating Blues have been doing it all year, and it showed in a taut 1-0 road win on Sunday. Frustrating the NHLs best power play during a pivotal two-man disadvantage at the start of the second period, the Blues continued their mastery of the Eastern Conference by beating the Penguins the way theyve beaten so many teams this season. The room to manoeuvr that Pittsburgh stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin usually enjoy disappeared as St. Louis clogged passing lanes and dictated play defensively. David Backes deflected a slap shot by Alexander Steen past Marc-Andre Fleury midway through the third period for the games only goal and Brian Elliott stopped 33 shots to pick up his fourth shutout of the season as the Blues moved three points clear of Chicago in the race for the best record in the Western Conference. "When youre in a tight game like that against a good team, the guys kind of rose up to the challenge and I tried to make a couple saves and get the rebounds out of the zone and they did the rest," Elliott said. Fleury made 26 saves for the Penguins but watched Backes deflection carom off his glove and into the net just after a penalty against Malkin expired. "I just saw the guy raise his stick for the shot," Fleury said. "There were a bunch of people in front. I tried to cover some net but I didnt see it go in. St. Louis bounced back from a one-sided loss at Philadelphia on Saturday to improve the leagues best road record to 23-11-3. Pittsburghs top-ranked power play went 0-for-5 a day after scoring three times in a win over Tampa Bay. When Elliott wasnt getting a pad on the puck, his teammates were. The Blues blocked 25 shots, with the Penguins frustration growing at every turn as the Blues improved to 20-5-2 against the Eastern Conference, the best interconference record in the league. Pittsburgh had a 5-on-3 power play at the beginning of the second period for more than 90 seconds without being able to sneak something by Elliott. Most of the time the Penguins struggled generating a shot as the Blues effectively disrupted Pittsburghs rhythm. "We just kind of cleared lanes and I was able to see the ones they took," Elliott said. "Whenever guys are moving big guys out of the way, it just helps and you saw guys get in front of shots, block them and clear them down." Malkin was called for high-sticking 9:17 into the third and he was barely out of the box and back on the ice when Backes gave St. Louis the lead. The puck cycled to the point and Alexander Steen fired a slap shot that Backes found a way to nick as it sailed by. His 24th goal of the year proved more than enough. Elliott wobbled several times — including at least two saves where it appeared the puck was creeping to the goal line when the whistle blew — but didnt collapse. When the clock expired after one last clear up the zone, the game ended with the unusual sight of Malkin trying to mix it up with Alex Pietrangelo. Bylsma said coming into an important weekend he wanted his team to get used to playing tightly contested, low-scoring games. Pittsburgh survived one on Saturday, rallying for a 4-3 overtime win against the streaking Lightning that featured 40 minutes of clamp-down hockey and 22 minutes of frantic play. The Blues, who have positioned themselves into contenders in the West by sealing off the net, would not be lulled into the kind of end-to-end stretches that allow the Penguins to run free. "We still want to do a better job in these games and win them," Crosby said. "We have done a pretty good job of being patient when weve been in these kinds of games." At times, Bylsma wonders if his club was too patient, particularly in the first period. "The first 20 minutes we backed them off with speed," he said. "We had some opportunities and needed to have more of a drive and shoot mentality." NOTES: The Penguins played with seven defencemen instead of six, a move Bylsma said was needed in a game where he knew open ice would be at a premium. ... St. Louis plays in Toronto on Tuesday while the Penguins host Phoenix on Tuesday. Bradley Chubb Jersey . Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist as the New York Islanders earned a 2-1 win over Ottawa Wednesday, leaving the Senators five points out of a playoff spot with just five games to play and four teams ahead of them. Phillip Lindsay Jersey . Schaub will start for an injured Case Keenum and try to help the Texans end a 12-game skid. 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Bradley Chubb Womens Jersey .C. - NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick headlines this years electees into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland - About four weeks after winning Olympic gold in the super-G, Anna Fenninger completed her run to the overall World Cup title Thursday by taking second in the same event. The 24-year-old Austrian finished behind Lara Gut at the World Cup Finals but built an unassailable 215-point lead over her Swiss friend with two races remaining this weekend. "Its just, Wow," said Fenninger, the first Austrian woman to win the overall title since Nicole Hosp in 2007. "It means that you are the best skier in the world over the whole season." Fenningers path to Alpine skiings most prestigious honour was made easier when her closest challenger, Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany, sustained season-ending injuries after crashing in the downhill on Wednesday. Still, her consistency over a tiring five-month season earned her the honour of becoming the 27th different womens champion since the World Cup launched in 1967. "You cant win the overall because you are lucky," Gut said. "You win the overall because you are the best." Fenninger carried the momentum of her Olympic exploits, including silver in giant slalom, into a surge of points in recent weeks. Her only slip since Sochi was a sixth-place finish in the final downhill on Wednesday, racing minutes before Hoefl-Riesch crashed. "I was so nervous yesterday it was not normal," Fenninger said. "But I learned from yesterday for today and Im stoked that I can show my good skiing again." Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein, who was second in the overall standings heading to Sochi, also wass lost for the season when she crashed in training on the Olympic downhill course.dddddddddddd Starting just before Gut on Thursday, Fenninger punched the air with her right fist after crossing the line, then blew a kiss to the television camera while waiting for her rival in the finish area. Gut then finished in 1 minute, 17.14 seconds on the sunbathed course, 0.61 seconds faster than Fenninger. Tina Maze of Slovenia, the defending overall champion, trailed Gut by 0.95 in third. Marie-Michele Gagnon of Lac-Etchemin, Que., did not finish. Guts victory, her second straight after her downhill success, clinched the season-long super-G title, a first career World Cup trophy for the 22-year-old Swiss racer. Gut looked up at the giant screens, pumped both fists and basked in a loud ovation from a 5,000-strong home crowd. "Its cool," the 22-year-old Gut said. "Winning it at home and finally bringing a (crystal) globe back to Switzerland, its amazing." Guts seventh World Cup race win this season is the most on the womens circuit, and leaves her third overall. Fenninger, however, won three giant slaloms — including back-to-back races last week in Are, Sweden — and racked up podium finishes. She finished second in the downhill standings, behind Hoefl-Riesch, and in super-G. She also stands second in the giant slalom race behind Jessica Lindell-Vikarby of Sweden. The final GS race closes the season on Sunday. By then, Austria hopes Marcel Hirscher will have clinched the mens overall title to give the Alpine nation its first double success since 2002. ' ' '