Elliott notches his third shutout in Blues' 2-0 win

ST. LOUIS -- Blues goalie Brian Elliott has had runs like this before. That's why he knows it could end just as abruptly as it started.

Elliott made 24 saves for his third shutout of the season in St. Louis' 2-0 victory over the Calgary Flames on Friday night.

"I just try to stay even-keeled, not really get up on yourself. Those things can sneak through just the same," Elliott said. "I try not to really think about it. You can be playing the same way and not getting the wins or results. You just try to keep it rolling when you can."

David Backes had a goal and an assist for St. Louis.

Elliott improved his record to 9-1 on the season and he leads the league in goals-against average at 1.34 and save percentage at .951. He's tied with four others for the league lead in shutouts.

"Lights out ... both goalies [including Jaroslav Halak] have been," said Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who also scored.

"He's making saves he has no business making," Backes said about Elliott. "When you've got that behind you, it gives you confidence to make a few more plays in front of him. ... Kudos to him."

The Blues are 6-1-2 since Ken Hitchcock took over as coach.

"We got two major goals from our top players, we got a great goaltending display and our fourth line was terrific," Hitchcock said. "That was the difference. It wasn't clean. It wasn't pretty. It was a really physical, hard game again. We seem to be in a lot of these games right now where they feel like playoff games."

Miikka Kiprusoff made 22 saves for the Flames, who have been blanked three times in 21 games.

"The positives are we played a hard game here tonight," Flames coach Brent Sutter said.

The Flames were not too disappointed with their effort, but more so that they ran into a hot goaltender.

"He just kept the puck out," Flames captain Jarome Iginla said about Elliott. "I know he's been playing well all year and he continued that against us tonight. We'd always like a few more chances, but the ones we did have he made some very good saves."

Backes gave the Blues a 1-0 lead with a short-handed goal, powering his way past Flames defenseman T.J. Brodie and lifting a shot over Kiprusoff's glove 10 minutes, 39 seconds into the game.

"Just keep your legs going," Backes said. "Hopefully, if worse comes to worse, you get a stride on a guy and he hauls you down and you play four-on-four. All of the sudden, there was a little open ice in front of me and I just tried to get a shot to the top half of the net and found a little twine there."

Elliott stopped Brendan Morrison in tight, then thwarted breakaway attempts by Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay.

Pietrangelo gave the Blues a two-goal cushion when he put Alex Steen's feed from the slot into the top of the net past Kiprusoff with 6:43 to play.