Monahan's OT goal carries Flames over Avalanche

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) Sean Monahan netted the overtime goal that gave Calgary coach Bob Hartley a milestone win.

Monahan scored 1:47 into the extra session to lift the Flames to a 4-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night.

That was enough for Hartley to secure his 400th NHL victory, and it came against his former team. His current players awarded Hartley with a fireman's helmet that usually goes to the hardest worker in the game.

''To be honest, I think I have no business with this prestigious fire helmet but at the same time, I told the players that I really respected the fact that they presented me with the helmet,'' said Hartley, who earned 193 wins when he coached Colorado from the 1998-99 season until he was let go 31 games into the 2002-03 season.

''I told them that I'm ready to trade that helmet to see them in the playoffs,'' he added. ''I don't know where this season, this story, is going, but it's certainly fun, and it's certainly very entertaining for us, the coaching staff.''

Monahan picked up a rebound in front and lifted it over fallen goalie Semyon Varlamov to give the Flames their fourth straight win.

''I cut through the middle, and (Mark Giordano) made a great pass to me and got a shot on net and found a rebound,'' said Monahan, who was happy to be the one to give Hartley the special win. ''It's well deserved. That's a big one for him.

''Obviously he used to be there (in Colorado). Right now we're rolling. Even as a group we knew we had to find a way to win that one.''

Dennis Wideman had a pair of goals for the Flames, Curtis Glencross also scored, and Kris Russell had three assists.

''It's pretty sweet for him to get that against a team he won the Cup with back in the day,'' Glencross said of Hartley said. ''I imagine it's one he'll never forget, and he came in after the game and said that his 400th win wasn't as important as it is for us to get into the playoffs.''

Karri Ramo made his fourth straight start, and stopped 26 shots to improve to 8-2-1.

Matt Duchene, Nick Holden and Alex Tanguay scored for the Avalanche. Varlamov, who missed the previous six games because of a groin injury, made 21 saves.

Josh Jooris, who posted his first NHL hat trick on Tuesday, 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.

The Flames went ahead 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 midair and past Varlamov.

The Avalanche appeared to score a power-play goal 89 seconds later, but it was disallowed after a lengthy review. It was determined that Daniel Briere used his left hand to bat the puck into the net.

''Certainly that PP goal would have been nice,'' said Tanguay, who took the initial shot. ''The puck didn't look like it moved, so I don't know what they saw. It's disappointing. We keep finding ways to lose games.''

Colorado kept pressing and was rewarded when Duchene finished 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 Avalanche took a 2-1 lead when Zach Redmond threw a pass to the front of the net that hit defenseman Ladislav Smid before bouncing off of Holden's skate and past Ramo.

The Flames, who held an 11-5 shot advantage following Wideman's goal, went almost 16 minutes without another shot.

Glencross scored at 1:14 of the third period when he one-timed a pass from David Jones past Varlamov.

Tanguay made it 3-2 at 14:14 of the third when he made a nice move to get past Russell before outwaiting Ramo and wristing in a shot.

Wideman sent the game to overtime when his shot from the point sneaked past Varlamov, who was screened by Hudler and Glencross.

NOTES: Colorado forward Jarome Iginla returned to the Saddledome for just the second time since the Flames traded him to Pittsburgh in March 2013. He played one game in Calgary with Boston last season before he signed with Colorado in the offseason. Iginla played in his 1,336th game, one behind C Adam Oates for 49th place in NHL history. ... Wideman leads NHL defensemen with 10 goals. ... Calgary is 11-1-2 when scoring first.