Bylsma shies away from using Malkin-Crosby together extensively in shutout loss

Penguins winning streak ends at 4

Once again the Pittsburgh Penguins (5-3-1) were unable to solve goaltender Jaroslav Halak but this time Halak stifled the Penguins in a St. Louis Blues (4-2-1) uniform.

Halak shutdown the Penguins offensive attack making 31 saves and 2006 1st overall pick Erik Johnson scored 50 seconds into overtime, lifting the St. Louis Blues to a 1-0 victory over the Penguins.

The Blues improved to 4-1-2 on the season and have posted back-to-back wins on consecutive days against the past two Stanley Cup winners, defeating Chicago 4-2 on Friday night and Pittsburgh 1-0 tonight.

The win extended the Blues home winning streak to 10 games.

Halak who improved to 4-1-1, showed great poise and was in his comfort zone, resembling his play against the Penguins last spring.

Halak kept the Penguins scoreless during a second period onslaught when Pittsburgh outshot St. Louis 19-7 in the period. Pittsburgh outshot the Blues 32-24 overall.

"In the second, I thought we outplayed them and generated a lot of chances," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said in his post-game comments.

Halak frustrated Pittsburgh offensively but the Penguins again got stellar goaltending from backup Brent Johnson (4-0-1) who made 23 saves in the loss. Johnson made several tough stops and continues to press for more playing time.

This was a game that could have went either way and an interesting dynamic is that head coach Dan Bylsma did not rely heavily on using Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby together on the same line during regulation in attempt to get something by Halak.