Flames winger Todd Bertuzzi, right, nails Colorado defenceman Brett Clark into the boards Tuesday night at the Pengrowth Saddledome. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

The Calgary Flames are making a habit of ending the Colorado Avalanche winning streaks.

The Flames used a season-high 51 shots to dominate the overmatched Colorado Avalanche 4-1 Tuesday night.

Defenceman Adrian Aucoin scored the game-winning goal in the third period, while goaltender Mikka Kiprusoff kept the Avalanche at bay with 22 saves.

Calgary's victory snaps Colorado's three-game winning streak.

With the score tied 1-1, Aucoin intercepted an attempted clearing pass and stepped into a slap shot that sailed over the glove of Avalanche goaltender Peter Budaj.

"It was big on so many levels just because of the way we've played our last few games," admitted Aucoin.

"Goals-against have been killing us; penalties have been killing us. We stayed out of the box and played good defence, and we put a lot of pucks on net with a lot of traffic, which is something we haven't been doing enough of. It was exactly what we needed."

The victory didn't come easy as the relentless Flames fired a season-high 51 shots at Budaj, who was brilliant for Colorado en route to a 47-save performance.

Calgary already has beaten the Avalanche three times this season. Its last encounter — a 3-0 win on Oct. 28 — ended a five-game winning streak for the Avalanche (8-9-0).

Rene Bourque, Jarome Iginla and David Moss also scored for the Flames (10-8-1), who won for only the second time in their last five games.

In one of the most complete games of the season, Calgary sent 19 shots each in the second and third periods, respectively.

"I think their coach said to throw everything at the net," said Budaj. "They're a big, physical team, and they put the puck in the corner and crash the net. We didn't win the battle along the walls, and that's why they had a lot of shots."

Despite the shooting bombardment, the Avalanche scored the game's first goal at 6:53 of the opening period after outworking Calgary along the boards.

Marek Svatos worked his way to the front of the net, waited for a pass from T.J. Hensick before one-timing a shot over the left shoulder of Kiprusoff.

The Flames jumped on Colorado in the second period, leading to the tying goal at 6:53.

Moments following a giveaway by Avalanche defenceman Ruslan Salei, winger Bourque sent a bouncing puck by Budaj on the Flames' 10 shot of the period.

"Our game plan was pretty much knowing he's won some games for them that way, and we knew he was going to make big saves," said Aucoin.

"It's not the old Colorado where they have tons of offence. They play a hard defensive game, and we just had to make our own opportunities, and we knew it wasn't going to be right away. Sooner or later it was going to happen because our forwards did such a great job."

Budaj was the only reason the game was square through the first two periods. He continued his stellar play in the third, thwarting the Flames on a two-man advantage.

After Aucoin gave Calgary a 2-1 lead, Kiprusoff made key stops when the Avalanche pulled Budaj for the extra attacker.

Iginla then salted the game away with an empty-net goal at 19:32. Moss added a power-play goal in the final 10 seconds.

"You could tell guys were fresher, our system was a little smarter and mentally we were rested, which made a big difference," said Aucoin. "We played the way we wanted to. …So many nights you want to play the right way, but it's not that easy, but tonight we made it look a little easier."

The teams will complete the back end of the home-and-home set on Thursday night in Denver.

With files from the Canadian Press