It wasn't that long ago when the Avalanche were money once they made it to overtime.
No more, and it could wind up costing them a playoff spot.
The Avalanche have lost the past two games in overtime, and in quick fashion, 2-1 in Chicago on Tuesday after a 4-3 loss to Nashville on Sunday.
Patrick Kane fed Jonathan Toews for the winner nine seconds into the extra period Tuesday, and Filip Forsberg scored 67 seconds in on Sunday.
The Avalanche are now 6-6 in overtime games, 1-1 in shootouts.
"Not happy with the overtime goal at all," coach Jared Bednar told reporters after the loss to the Blackhawks. "We made a mistake on that. Easy coverage and we let a guy get in behind us. Cost us a second point."
It's hard to knock Nathan MacKinnon, who scored the Avalanche's goal and whose extraordinary play is keeping them in the playoff race. But he lost the faceoff to open the overtime and was late covering Toews, who skated down left wing and accepted Kane's centering pass.
"I would have liked to have a chance to try and earn that a little bit longer than that play, but it is what it is," Bednar said. "We are moving on. It's a big point, we will take any points, but at this time I would like to see our team play more of a complete game and get the two, or give ourselves a better chance at the two points."
Forsberg skated by Mikko Rantanen on Sunday before surprising Semyon Varlamov with the winning shot.
The Avalanche are awful when it comes to faceoffs, and it's especially critical to win them in overtime.
"Games are going to tighten up now, and they are going to be closer games," Bednar said. "One-goal games a lot, you're going to see overtime. We have to fix that aspect of our game."
The Avalanche have 77 points and 34 ROW (regulation and overtime wins), the same as Los Angeles, but the Kings have the second wild card playoff spot in the Western Conference at the moment by a tiebreaker:
The most points against each other. The Kings won the only previous meeting, 2-1 (in overtime, naturally) on Dec. 21. They'll play two more times.
It won't get easier Thursday in Columbus. Like the Avalanche, the Blue Jackets are in the thick of a playoff race. They currently hold the second wild card in the Eastern Conference with 73 points, two ahead of Florida.
The Blue Jackets also are 6-1 in overtime, 6-4 in shootouts.