By Dave Vest | Anthony Perez
GLENDALE -- The Coyotes closed a season-long six-game homestand on Friday night with a loss best described as a head-scratcher.

Ryan O’Reilly scored a late, game-tying goal and then the lone shootout goal to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 4-3 victory over Phoenix at Jobing.com Arena.

With the shootout loss, the Coyotes earned their 96th point and remained in fourth place in the Western Conference standings.

• Click here to see the conference standings.

Looking for a season sweep of the lowly Avalanche, Phoenix spotted Colorado a 2-0 lead. But Lee Stempniak scored a nifty, unassisted goal at 16:29 of the second period to spark a comeback by the Coyotes.

Phoenix made the score 2-2 at 2:46 of the third period when Ray Whitney poked a rebound between the pads of Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj for his 16th goal of the season.

The Coyotes then took a 3-2 lead at 12:23 of the third period during a power play when captain Shane Doan one-timed a pass from Whitney past Budaj from one knee atop the left faceoff circle.

But the Avalanche, which managed just one shot on goal in the final 20 minutes, somehow tied the score when a loose puck bounced onto O’Reilly’s stick (see KEY MOMENT below).

Photo by Getty Images.

The Coyotes had a golden opportunity to retake the lead late in the game when Avalanche center Paul Stastny was called for tripping at 18:39 of the third period. But Phoenix failed to score on the power play, which spilled over into the overtime, and a second consecutive shootout in Glendale was needed.

Kyle Turris, Radim Vrbata and Whitney all failed to score on Budaj, in that order.

O’Reilly, shooting second for Colorado, beat Bryzgalov with a shot between the pads.

“We had chances to get two points,” Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett said. “Some nights you get them, some nights you don’t. I like the way we battled in the third period and got the lead.”

Budaj, who entered the game having lost six straight decisions, earned his 100th career win by stopping 35 of the 38 shots. Bryzgalov, who was trying to set the franchise record for all-time wins on his bobblehead night, stopped 17 of the 20 shots he faced.

Trailing 3-2, Colorado forward Ryan O'Reilly grabbed a loose puck in traffic and beat Coyotes goalie Ilya Bryzgalov with a shot from the left side at 15:29 of the third period. It was Colorado's only shot of the third period.

"You look at that play and it was two-on-four and the puck bounces right to their guy," Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett said. "It was their only shot so I don't think you can overthink that too much. I hate giving up the lead, but at least we got ourselves in position to win."

• Click here to watch the KEY MOMENT.

• The Coyotes are two points ahead of Los Angeles and Nashville, three ahead of Anaheim and four ahead of Chicago. But the Kings, Ducks and Blackhawks play twice and the Predators play once before Phoenix next plays on Wednesday in Los Angeles. Even ninth-place Dallas, at 87 points with six games left, plays three times before Wednesday.

• Colorado failed to score on any of their four power plays. In four games this season, Phoenix killed all 12 of Colorado's power plays.

• Despite missing 10 games, captain Shane Doan leads the Coyotes with 19 goals.

• The Coyotes scratched Martin Hanzal (lower-body injury), Lauri Korpikoski (upper-body injury) and Taylor Pyatt (upper-body injury).

• The Coyotes' next game is Wednesday vs. Los Angeles at Staples Center. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. (Arizona time). The game can be seen on Fox Sports Arizona and can be heard on XTRA Sports 910 (AM).

"I think they’ve been up one or two (goals) on everybody. We talked about it and we had some opportunities, but we weren’t good enough in the first period. We got better and we should have won it in regulation." "We just came out flat and we really didn't get out legs under us until late in the second period. You see where we are in the standings and where they are and we certainly think we're the better team. But they got a jump on us." "We've had such a tough stretch here we had to get on the winning track," said McClement, who scored his first goal since coming from St. Louis in a trade on Feb. 18 and added an assist. "This was probably our best effort throughout a game in a long time." Doan Stempniak McClement