CALGARY — Sean Monahan scored at 1:47 of overtime to lead the Calgary Flames to a 4-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.
Monahan picked up a rebound in front of the net and lifted it over fallen Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov as the Flames (17-8-2) won their fourth straight game.
Dennis Wideman had a pair of goals for the Flames, Curtis Glencross also scored, while Kris Russell had three assists.
Karri Ramo made his fourth straight start in net for the Flames and finished with 26 saves to improve his record to 8-2-1.
Calgary coach Bob Hartley earned his 400th career National Hockey League win against his former team. Hartley earned 193 of those wins when he coached Colorado from the 1998-99 season until he was let go 31 games into the 2002-03 season.
Matt Duchene, Nick Holden and Alex Tanguay scored for the Avalanche (9-11-6), which also lost 4-3 at home to the Montreal Canadiens on Monday.
Varlamov, who missed Colorado’s past six games with a groin injury, made 26 saves in a losing cause.
After scoring his first career hat trick to lead the Flames to a 5-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes two nights earlier at the Saddledome, Josh Jooris nearly gave the Flames a 1-0 lead early in the first period. Jiri Hudler kept the puck in at the blue-line before taking a quick shot that Jooris deflected off the post behind Varlamov.
Michael Ferland had a pair of chances to open the scoring for the Flames in the first. Mid-way through the period he drove to the Colorado net at the same time as Ladislav Smid fired a shot from the point. Ferland corralled the rebound in front of Varlamov but he lost control of it before he could backhand a shot on net.
Later, Paul Byron picked up the puck behind the net and quickly centred a pass to Ferland, who one-timed a shot that Varlamov was able to stop with his right pad to end the scoring threat.
The Flames went up 1-0 at 2:20 of the second with a power-play goal when Wideman drove to the net and batted a pass from Johnny Gaudreau out of mid air and past Varlamov.
The Avs appeared to respond with a power-play goal of their own 89 seconds later, but the goal was disallowed after a lengthy review when it was determined that Daniel Brier used his left hand to bat the puck into the Calgary net.
Colorado kept pressing and were rewarded when Duchene finished off a give-and-go passing play with Ryan O’Reilly by snapping a shot past Ramo at 13:23 of the second.
Only 58 seconds later, the Avs took a 2-1 lead when Zach Redmond threw a pass to the front of the net that hit Calgary defenceman Ladislav Smid before bouncing off of Holden’s skate and past Ramo.
The Flames, who held an 11-5 shot advantage over the Avs following Wideman’s goal, went almost 16 minutes without a shot before Varlamov made a blocker save to deny a scoring attempt by Hudler.
Colorado outshot Calgary 15-7 in the second to take a 20-14 advantage into the third.
Glencross scored at 1:14 of the third period when he one-timed a pass from David Jones past Varlamov.
Tanguay then put the Avs up 3-2 at 14:14 of the third when he made a nice move to get past Russell before outwaiting Ramo and wristing a shot over the Calgary goalie’s blocker.
Wideman sent the game to overtime when his shot from the point sneaked past Varlamov, who was screened on the play by both Hudler and Glencross.
Just seconds into the extra period, Varlamov stuck out his right pad to deny a breakaway attempt by Byron.