Comical doesn’t begin to describe it. For a team that holds itself to the highest of standards, Colorado’s blown lead to Arizona in the final 24 minutes of regulation is up there with one of the more embarrassing losses it’s had over the past handful of years.

And even more so given the way it went down.

With both Nathan MacKinnon and Josh Manson on the tail end of lengthy shifts, Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen gained possession of the puck deep in the Avs zone late in the overtime period. Instead of allowing his teammates to go for a much-needed change, Rantanen chose to play the puck up the ice, eventually passing it to a gassed Manson, who was a mere strides away from making a line change. Manson eventually coughed up the puck, the Coyotes stormed the Avs’ goal and put one past goalie Alexandar Georgiev with just 20 seconds remaining.

It’s an unnecessary gaffe from Rantanen and it cost the Avs an opportunity to at least play for the extra point in the shootout. The Coyotes aren’t the same lottery team they’ve been in years past. But for the Avalanche, scoring the first four goals and dominating seemingly every facet of the second straight game against their divisional rivals should’ve been enough.

Jonathan Drouin, Logan O’Connor, Nathan MacKinnon and Rantanen scored for the Avs, who fell to 0-3-3 in their last six road games and 5-5-2 against their division. Colorado scored three times in the second period to build their lead up to 4-0.

For MacKinnon, who also tallied an assist on Rantanen’s power-play goal, his point streak reaches 19 games. He also has 56 points — just two back of the league leader, Nikita Kucherov.

Colorado led 4-1 heading into the third period before the Coyotes started to pour it on. First, defenseman Michael Kesselring cut into the lead, making it a two-goal game. Then Jason Zucker pitched in just over three minutes later to pull the Yotes within a goal. The Avs managed to slow things down for a moment before Arizona eventually tied it. With the goalie pulled, Sean Durzi beat Georgiev from the point while on a 6-on-5 attack to force OT.

Georgiev made 22 saves, including four in the overtime period. He surrendered four goals on the last 12 shots he faced.