The loser’s point was of value Tuesday night in Denver when the Colorado Avalanche lost to the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-1, in overtime.
That point was enough to tie the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
“Wish we had two [points],” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I didn’t think we played a complete game tonight. We were a little slow the first period and really got going in the second, I liked it. But not happy with the overtime goal at all. We made a mistake on that, easy coverage, we let a guy in behind us, and it cost us a second point.
“We’ll take any points, but at this time, I’d like to see our team play more of a complete game, to get two points or give ourselves a better chance to get two points.”
It took Jonathan Toews all of nine seconds to end the game in the extra session for the Chicago win.
“It was nice to get that chance right away and bury it,” Toews said. “You always say that overtime can go either way, and it’s usually one great scoring chance after the next, end to end, so it’s nice to get that first one to go in.”
Erik Gustafsson gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead early in the fist period.
“I was trying to find [Kane] on the backdoor, but it came off the skate,” Gustafsson said. “It was a good day. New contract, goal, a win too. Like I said, it was a good day.”
Nathan MacKinnon tied the game late in the middle frame.
J-F Berube made 33 saves to pick up the win for the Blackhawks.
“It feels good. Even in San Jose I felt good, just a little different result,” Berube said. “But the main thing is to stick with it and just let that one go and look forward, and I’m happy with the way it went tonight.”
Chicago improved to 29-30-8.
“A good ending there,” Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville said. “I thought there were a lot of good things in the game tonight. Nice to see [Berube] get a win and, obviously, nice to always win.”
The Blackhawks trail the Avs by 11 points in the ladder race.
[WATCH: All Avalanche vs. Blackhawks highlights]
Semyon Varlamov made 25 saves in the loss.
“I thought I liked our game in the second half there. I thought we really responded when we were down by one, and it would have been nice to capitalize on that last power play that we had,” Avalanche forward Tyson Jost said after the game. “We had an opportunity to close the game out, but unfortunately, we didn’t. … We got one point, but that’s not good enough for this time of year.”
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