Remember how the Avalanche would pull goalie Semyon Varlamov for an extra skater last season, score the tying goal and pull out a win in overtime? Or win outright in the final minute of regulation?
The roles have been reversed this year.
It was the case again Thursday night in Calgary. Alex Tanguay scores a spectacular goal with 5:46 left in the third period to give the Avalanche a 3-2 lead, but they just can't get that all-important insurance goal. The Flames pull goalie Karri Ramo with 1:40 to go, Dennis Wideman scores on a screen shot with 1:17 left to tie it and Sean Monahan pokes in the winner at 1:47 of overtime for a 4-3 Flames win.
"These are the things that we need to be better at," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy told reporters after the game.
The win was the 400th of former Avalanche and current Flames coach Bob Hartley's NHL career.
"I'm happy for him, but I wish he had done it another night," said Roy, who won his second Stanley Cup with Colorado under Hartley in 2001. "We're trying to get back in the playoff race and a loss like tonight hurt us a lot."
The Avalanche couldn't hold 2-1 and 3-2 leads, just as they couldn't Monday in their 4-3 loss to Montreal, just as they haven't been able to do all too often this season. They are 6-6-6 in one-goal games and 9-11-6 overall.
"It's kind of weird because at times I think we've played better than last year and last year we got 112 points," Roy said. "It's hard to explain. We lost a lot of games by one goal and last year we were just winning those games and the puck was bouncing our way. I thought we were managing our game better and now it seems like we're losing those games. It certainly makes a big difference.
"We got a point. It's nice to have one point, but when you're up with less than two (minutes left) you expect to have two (points)."
Former Flames star Jarome Iginla had a couple of great chances to win it in the waning seconds of regulation, but he couldn't beat Ramo, who had 26 saves.
Monahan's winning goal came after Varlamov made a save against him. But rather than put his glove down to smother the puck, he used his stick to nudge it and the puck only moved a few inches, making it easy for Monahan to poke the rebound into the open net.
Varlamov made 21 saves in his first appearance since sustaining a groin injury Nov. 15 in New Jersey. Assuming he felt OK physically after the game, he should start Friday in Winnipeg.
Wideman opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 2:20 of the second period and the Avalanche thought they tied it at 3:49 on a Daniel Briere goal. The goal was disallowed after a video review in which it was ruled Briere batted the puck into the net with his left hand.
"All the angles we had, it was impossible to tell if he touched the puck with his glove or not," Roy said.
The Avalanche did tie the game at 13:23 when Ryan O'Reilly fed Matt Duchene for a goal on a 2-on-1 rush. Then Nick Holden, playing his first game as a forward, was credited with the go-ahead goal at 14:21 when Zach Redmond's shot into a crowd hit Holden's right skate and bounced behind Ramo.
A giveaway by Tyson Barrie led to a Calgary goal by Curtis Glencross that re-tied the game at 1:14 of the third period before the Avalanche took their 3-2 lead when Tanguay put a move on Flames defenseman Kris Russell and another on Ramo for his team-leading 10th goal.
The Flames nearly won the game just seconds into the overtime when Paul Byron skated in on a breakaway. Varlamov managed to get a piece of the puck with his outstretched right pad.
The Flames won their fourth game in a row to improve to 17-8-2 this season. They have 36 points and are third in the Pacific Division, one point behind Vancouver and Anaheim ... The Avalanche are 2-0-2 in the first game when playing back to back and 0-2-1 in the second game ... They had one power play for the second game in a row. The Flames were 1-for-3 with the man advantage ... Defenseman Erik Johnson played 28:28, had five takeaways and three blocked shots ... Defensemen Redmond and Karl Stollery were both plus-2. Redmond played 15:19, Stollery 12:23 ... Holden logged 8:21.