Four games -- all on the road -- remain for the Avalanche, which is about to begin the final week of regular-season play with a two-point lead on Chicago with one game in hand in the race for second place in the Central Division and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
The Avalanche still has a chance to catch St. Louis for top spot in the division, but it became an especially long shot with a 3-2 shootout loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday in the team's final home game before the postseason. The Blues have a four-point lead and both teams have four games to play.
Coach Patrick Roy gave the team off Monday before flying to Edmonton and a game against the Oilers on Tuesday night.
"What I want is consistency (in the last four games), a good effort," Roy said. "Let's just play with no fear right now. We believe in ourselves, and that's a great quality of our team."
The Avalanche has made a habit of pulling out come-from-behind wins in recent games, but it didn't happen against an injury-riddled Penguins team that didn't suit up Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz and Brooks Orpik, among others. The Penguins are locked into the No. 2 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference with nothing really to play for until the postseason.
Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said all three had been playing with minor injuries and he decided to hold them out of the second game in two nights. Pittsburgh lost 4-0 Saturday in Minnesota with backup Jeff Zatkoff in goal.
Down 2-0 after Brandon Sutter scored twice in the second period, the Avalanche tied the game in the third on goals by Ryan O'Reilly at 18 seconds and Patrick Bordeleau with 3:13 to go. Colorado went 0-for-4 on power plays through regulation and managed one shot during a four-on-three advantage for the final 37.4 seconds of overtime.
Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie, who scored on his first NHL shootout attempt last Thursday against New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, flubbed his shot against Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in the first round, sending the puck wide of the right post. After Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov made a pad save against James Neal, Fleury stopped O'Reilly. Jussi Jokinen skated into the right circle, then cut to his left and put a shot over a prone Varlamov before Fleury stopped Gabriel Landeskog to end it.
"It's disappointing," O'Reilly said. "That's a win you have to get for Varly. Myself, I was brutal. I probably should have buried that in the shootout."
Fleury was exceptional on a night when the Avalanche had 41 shots through overtime, 12 on the five power plays. Varlamov made 30 saves.
"They had a good penalty kill," O'Reilly said. "They come hard, they work hard and it comes down to simple things."
The Avalanche, now 6-0-1 in the past seven games, gained a point and has 107 points in 78 games. Colorado finished 26-11-4 at the Pepsi Center and begins the final week with a 24-10-3 record on the road.
"It was a very important point," said Roy, who added that the Avalanche was coming off a 4-0 win in St. Louis on Saturday. "It might surprise you, but I'm happy with our game. We played seven games in 12 days, our guys played a very emotional game (against the Blues) and when we saw Crosby being out of the lineup, Kunitz not in the lineup and on and on, I think it was just a normal reaction that maybe we have an easier game. I have to give them credit, they worked hard and they played a solid game. Their players had an opportunity and they took advantage of it."
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Roy didn't have a problem with the Penguins' decision to keep Crosby and some others out of their lineup.
"I probably would have done the same," he said. "It's funny because we're thinking of doing the same thing towards the end, depending on where we are in the standings. We're going to rest Varly probably the last two games. I think they did what they thought was the right thing for their team. The only sad part is there are a lot of people here to see Sidney Crosby play, but that's fine, it's part of our business."
Roy said last week that Jean-Sebastien Giguere would start against the Oilers, with Varlamov playing Thursday in Vancouver and Reto Berra on Friday in San Jose. He was undecided about next Sunday's game in Anaheim.
Landeskog was asked if he missed playing against Crosby, who is well on his way to winning the NHL scoring championship with 102 points in 78 games.
"Yes and no," he said. "Of course he's the best player in the league. If you ask me, he's a fun guy to watch out there. He works so hard and he's so talented and so skilled. It was unfortunate. I would have liked playing against him, but at the same time he took a slap shot off my knee the last time we played against him, so I didn't have to worry about that.
"One point is always a point. The character that we showed, the momentum that we created in the third period and the way the crowd fed off of that, I think we had enough scoring chances to win the game. Certainly it stings, especially knowing that we had a chance to win."