Lost game, lost opportunity. This was just a bad loss all the way around Tuesday night, the Avalanche's 3-2 setback in Dallas coming 24 hours after a convincing 6-2 win against the Stars at the Pepsi Center.
Yes, the Avalanche actually converted a power play -- Matt Duchene scored early in the first period on the front end of a double minor with Ryan Garbutt in the box for high-sticking Andre Benoit -- but Colorado went 0-for-5 the rest of the way and is in an embarrassing 1-for-37 rut with the man advantage in the past 12 games.
Erik Johnson, who assisted on Duchene's goal, gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead in the second period with a shot from the right circle off a sweet skating and passing play by Duchene, but that was it for the visitors.
The Stars outshot the Avalanche 14-2 in the period and ageless Ray Whitney, who is 41, scored on a power play with 2:41 left for his second goal of the game to tie matters 2-2.
Then came the decisive play with time winding down in the third. Johnson was fairly deep along the right-wing boards when he took a shot that was stopped by goalie Dan Ellis. The puck ricocheted up the slot to fleet rookie Colton Sceviour, who passed to Rich Peverley on the right side as both were skating into the neutral zone.
Defenseman Nick Holden -- he replaced Nate Guenin in the lineup -- was watching Peverley as Sceviour continued up ice. But Sceviour accepted a return pass from Peverley after blowing by forward John Mitchell at the red line. He continued on a breakaway and slipped the puck between goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere's pads with 2:58 to play.
"I think EJ should have put it behind the net," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. "After that, Mitchie stopped skating at the red line and Nick probably should have read that it was a two-on-one, and he scored in the middle of the net. I guess it's a team thing right there. It's too bad because we played a good game. It's just the details at the end that cost us at least a point."
I don't think you can fault Johnson for taking a shot on goal or for Holden, who was taking care of Peverley, but Mitchell's the one who got beat at center ice.
Of course, if the Avalanche didn't continue to squander so many power plays -- 1-for-11 in the two-game series, including 0-for-2 on two-man advantages -- just maybe it's a sweep and not a split.
It didn't help that Tyson Barrie took an interference penalty in the second period to negate most of what would have been a four-minute advantage, or that too few forwards were willing to head to the front of the net when Barrie or other defensemen were seeking somebody -- anybody -- to go there.
Did they forget in the span of one day how they scored most of their six goals Monday? Apparently so. Even Duchene's first-period goal Monday came on a rebound off a Johnson shot.
"We saw on the power play you don't need to make pretty plays all the time, just put pucks at the net and pick up the rebounds," Roy said. "This is how you score goals in the NHL now. A screen or a point shot with traffic and then the rebound, that's what we need to do. I just think we forgot about how we scored our goals in the last game. They were not all pretty. There were a lot of shots from our 'D' coming from the blue line -- three of them -- and the rest were driving that net."
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The loss was the first in regulation for the Avalanche when scoring the first goal. The record in that situation is now 18-1-1, and the shootout loss came against Minnesota last Saturday when the Wild scored the tying goal with 3:53 left in the third period.
The Avalanche remains in third place in the Central Division -- the top three teams in each division are guaranteed playoff positions -- with a 22-10-1 record and 45 points in 33 games. The Wild beat Vancouver 3-2 in a shootout and has a 20-11-5 record for 45 points in 36 games.
But the real story: in the event of a tie when the regular season ends, the number of regulation and overtime wins is significant. The Avalanche has two shootout wins and the Wild has five, so Colorado has 20 regulation and overtime wins while Minnesota has 15. That's a significant statistic, along with the fact the Avalanche has played three fewer games.
The Avalanche returns home to face Edmonton on Thursday -- the Oilers and goalie Devan Dubnyk always seem to play Colorado tough -- before playing the next three on the road against Los Angeles, San Jose and Chicago.
No soft touches in the bunch.
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Johnson has scored goals in back-to-back games for the first time since he scored in three consecutive games in February 2011, giving him four goals in 33 games this season. He had four goals in 104 games over the previous two seasons and seven goals in 126 games with the Avalanche before this year following his February 2011 acquisition from St. Louis.
Johnson, who also has eight assists and has a plus-18 plus/minus rating, is in his sixth NHL season, yet people tend to forget he's still only 25 years old.
"It's the evolution as a player, it's maturity as a player," he said of his improved play. "Some guys might take a little bit longer than others just to get comfortable and find their stride."