DENVER — Moral victories only get you so far, especially when the season is nearly 75 percent of the way through.

The Avalanche were defeated for the seventh time in 10 games (3-5-2) since the All-Star break on Saturday, falling 4-3 to the streaking Toronto Maple Leafs at Ball Arena. Despite having an opportunity to win each of the last two games, Colorado has just eight of a possible 20 points since the break — a time when the intensity ramps up ahead of the final stretch before the playoffs.

“We went through that stretch where we didn’t play well so now the pressure’s on to have a good segment,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “We’re 3-4-1 coming into this segment now we’re 3-5-1, our worst segment of the year so far.”

The Avs led 2-0 on goals from Artturi Lehkonen and Andrew Cogliano before letting the game slip away. They gave up three straight goals before a late tally from Mikko Rantanen pulled them back into a tie. But a late delay of game penalty from Rantanen for shooting the puck over the glass gave the Leafs’ lethal power play another look.

The go-ahead goal came quickly from Tyler Bertuzzi, who finished a hat trick on his 29th birthday, and the hats rained down on the ice from the visiting teams’ fans. Not a good look for the Avalanche as they try to work their way out of this poor stretch of results. At some point, the results matter more than the process. And for Bednar’s team, who find themselves third among the top three in the Central, the results need to quickly start turning in their favor if they want to lock up the top spot in the division.

“That’s the kind of heat that we’re trying to put on our guys,” Bednar said. “Every game is an important game.”

Frustrations starting to mount

Following Thursday’s loss in Detroit, a visibly upset Cale Makar struggled to find the words to explain the poor stretch of hockey he was mired in at the time. Makar finally snapped out of his seven-game point-less drought — the longest of his career — after recording the secondary assist on the game’s first goal from Artturi Lehkonen. Bednar even credited him for a strong game. But Makar was shaken on Thursday. And it came from a player who often stands and confidently breaks down the loss in front of the media contingent.

On Saturday, Bednar’s post-game press conference was about the shortest it’s been all season — especially at home. The coach, who called out his goalie for a bad third goal, was also visibly frustrated with another loss after an admirable effort from his club. Colorado led 37-18 in scoring chances in all situations according to Natural Stat Trick. But opposing goalie Ilya Samsonov made one more save than Alexandar Georgiev.

It might not end up being a story but it’s certainly something to keep an eye on. These guys are angry, and they know they’re a better team than the results have shown over the past month.

Mikko’s inconsistencies

The Avalanche’s recent goal-scoring troubles are a sign of their big guns slowing down. This was a glaring issue in Thursday’s 2-1 OT loss in Detroit and it was something they slowly started to shake off against the Leafs.

Rantanen finally found the back of the net again. He hadn’t scored in four games and had just two in his previous 10 games. But while Colorado’s most recent 30-goal scorer has been a staple of the top line all season, his inconsistencies in recent games have also become an issue. The penalty Rantanen took late in regulation against the most dominant power play in recent weeks was unnecessary. Delay of game penalties are often a sign of desperation. Rantanen had time to make a better decision with the puck but instead airmailed it over the glass from his zone. The mistake was costly and just another sign of how quickly his game-tying heroics were washed away.