In the last few days my connection had been disrupted several times as I was going to win a game.  Is it possible that my opponent could somehow do this?  I can't account for this new phenonemon.

I've never heard of that - is it the same player?

i too encountered many similar problems. and i had the exact same thoughts. it never happens when i'm losing. it happened with different opponents.

No, no one can do such thing. Try clearing your browser's cache and temp files, use the latest versions of firefox or chrome, update your java and flash, and make sure your internet connection is decent and stable.

Well, I'm starting to reconsider this possibility - had this happen to me a few days ago - was winning, 1 - 2 moves away from checkmate, and 5 seconds away from the time - he was losing and about 3 seconds away from the time. My connection stopped for about 5 seconds - he won. Frustrating. 

Connections have been very good.