DENVER — So often this season, the Avalanche have been able to score their way out of a bad game. Just take Sunday’s OT victory as an example. Colorado was able to rely on its powerful top line, led by Hart-Trophy hopeful Nathan MacKinnon, to score five goals in 24 minutes to erase a four-goal deficit for the first time in nearly 17 years.

That plan didn’t work on Tuesday. The Avs were outplayed and shut down by the visiting Montreal Canadiens. Outside of a goal from MacKinnon at the 43-second mark, the NHL’s leading offense was unable to solve Sam Montembeault. The result was a 2-1 loss to the Habs — snapping a nine-game winning streak and suffering just its third loss at Ball Arena since the new year.

“It’s frustrating because we didn’t check hard enough in the first period,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “And it ends up that tonight we don’t outscore our mistakes.”

The Avalanche fell to 46-21-5 and lost for the first time since the trade deadline. The Habs, who also defeated the Avs in Montreal, join the Florida Panthers as the only Eastern Conference teams to sweep Colorado with two regulation wins.

The winning streak ended but a couple of other streaks continued. MacKinnon, who continued his torrid pace, scoring his 45th of the year to tie Nikita Kucherov in the NHL points race with 123, saw his home point streak extended to 35 games in short order.

MacKinnon is also riding a 19-game point streak, tied for the longest in the NHL this season with another 19-game run he had earlier in the year. MacKinnon is the first player in NHL history to record two point-streaks of at least 19 games in the same season.

The Habs became the second-last team from the east to visit Ball Arena this season. It’s full-steam ahead at home for the remainder of the regular season, starting with a battle against another NHL powerhouse, the New York Rangers on Thursday. After that, Colorado hosts the Nashville Predators, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, Winnipeg Jets, and Edmonton Oilers to close out its home schedule.

Each of those teams, aside from the Wild, are expected to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.