MONTREAL - The Montreal Impact got a point off one of the top teams in Major League Soccer this season but they felt like it was a defeat.

The Impact (4-3-2) wasted a pair of one-goal leads as Bobby Burling's 73rd minute strike gave the Colorado Rapids a 2-2 draw on Saturday before a full house of 20,801 at Saputo Stadium.

"It's a point but it's more like we lost two points," said captain Patrice Bernier. "In the first half we played well.

"We were compact and we created opportunities. In the second we fell asleep a bit. We can't look at it as a good point. We had a chance to take three."

Didier Drogba put Montreal ahead early with a perfectly placed free kick but Shkelzen Gashi tied it early in the second. Maxim Tissot struck back only to see Burling score off Gashi's free kick.

It left the Impact with two points from a run of three games in eight days that started with a crushing 2-0 loss at home to Toronto last Saturday, followed by an uplifting 1-1 draw at New York City on a Dominic Oduro goal in added time.

Fatigue may have been a factor. The Impact also have a handful of injured players. And 38-year-old Drogba managed to play a full 90 minutes for a third straight game despite battling a flu.

But midfielder Kyle Bekker wasn't buying excuses.

"That's the easy way out," he said. "It wasn't good enough. It's a game we should have won."

Colorado (5-2-2) ended a three-game winning streak but were more than pleased to emerge with a point on the road against one of the Eastern Conference leaders.

Coach Pablo Mastroeni said the two goals his team conceded were "world-class strikes" and he was proud of his team's showing.

"They didn't give up," said Mastroeni. "They believe in each other."

The Impact dominated the early going and got the first goal on Drogba's free kick after Ignacio Piatti was pulled down by Burling. Drogba looped a shot just inside the left post from 25 yards for his second of the season.

That set two-time Olympic moguls skiing gold medallist Alex Bilodeau to ringing the Impact's goal bell in the east grandstand.

Colorado equalized only two minutes into the second half as Mekeil Williams crossed the ball in from the left side. Centreback Laurent Ciman missed it and the ball went in off the onrushing Gashi, who got inside position on Tissot.

"I should have given him a push, but I tried to fix my mistake and I scored five minutes later," said Tissot.

Montreal struck back in the 50th when Tissot drilled a shot along the ground from distance that went just inside Zac MacMath's left post. It marked the first time this season Colorado has conceded more than one goal in a game.

"I hit it well," the Gatineau, Que., native said. "I wanted to hit it with the outside of the foot so it would come back in and that's what happened."

The Rapids tied it again when Gashi's free kick into a crowd in the Montreal box was nudged forward by Axel Sjoberg to Burling, who put it in from the doorstep in the 73rd.

The Impact travel to Columbus next Saturday while the Rapids return home to face Salt Lake.

Notes — For a second straight game, the Impact started four Canadians, a rarity — Bernier, Tissot, Bekker and Wandrille Lefevre. . . Former Impact fullback Eric Miller, injured last week against Seattle, was not in Colorado's lineup. Miller was traded in March for a draft pick and money. . . Burling was selected by Montreal in the 2012 expansion draft, but elected not to sign and was traded to the defunct Chivas USA.