Avs need to score more than two goals

Even when the Avalanche has played well lately, it hasn't been able to secure a win and a much-needed two points as the games get more difficult and the possibility of earning a playoff berth seems more remote.

The outcomes don't figure to improve any time soon until this team finds a way to score more than two goals in a game.

The Avalanche has failed to reach the three-goal mark in five consecutive games and has lost them all, four in regulation before Saturday's 3-2 shootout loss to Vancouver on a day when victory seemed all but assured.

Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa dived to the ice to prevent Avalanche left wing TJ Galiardi from scoring into an empty net with 48 seconds remaining in the third period and scored to tie the game with 34.1 seconds left.

The Avalanche, which had gone 7-0 in shootouts this season and won 10 in a row going back to last year -- one short of the NHL record set by Dallas in 2005-06 -- went 0 for 3 in the shootout against Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo. Avalanche goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who won his only previous shootout appearance this season, gave up a goal through the 5-hole to Mason Raymond in the second round, and it proved to be the difference.

So the Avalanche, which has scored a total of eight goals during a 0-4-1 slide, will try to get untracked Tuesday when Chicago visits the Pepsi Center. It won't be easy. The Avalanche needed 46 shots to score twice against the Canucks after getting blanked by Minnesota on Thursday despite taking 37 shots.

"We put a good effort together, but at the end of the day we only got one point," Galiardi said. "It hurts. If we can play consistently like that I think we will win our fair share of games, but it seems like it has happened too many times this year, giving up goals late in a game and costing us."

The Avalanche has been held to two goals or fewer in 10 of the past 12 games while going 3-7-2.

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