Wincing, Ales Kotalik watched the reporters get closer to his dressing-room stall.

“No, not again.”

Monday’s line of questioning had focused on the Calgary Flames winger’s banishment to the press box for a night. Never a pleasant topic.

Tuesday’s issue was equally frustrating.

Back in the lineup against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Kotalik, anxious to nail down his first goal of the winter, endured a discouraging night.

Ten minutes in, he gets a perfect feed from Alex Tanguay — and what happens? His stick disintegrates.

Later in the first period, Kotalik is roaring up ice on a breakaway and the whistle blows — why? Because Flames defender Robyn Regehr and Blue Jackets winger Tom Sestito are scrapping.

“Yeah, I don’t know what to call it,” said Kotalik. “When you have an open net and you’ve got everything on the shot and the stick breaks. Then you get a breakaway whistled down? Those kinds of things . . . it happens. I don’t know.

“It doesn’t matter. We have to move forward.”

Of course, Kotalik was not alone in his misery.

For the third straight game, the Flames could rustle up no more than one goal.

For the third straight game, they lost — this time 3-1 in National Hockey League action at Nationwide Arena.

Equally snake-bit had been Curtis Glencross, who, in the first period, was robbed by goalie Mathieu Garon on a shorthanded foray, and who, in the second period, roped a slapper through Garon, only to see it clank off the post (and the rebound hop over the stick of — you guessed it — Kotalik).

“For myself in the last two games, I should have had three or four goals,” said Glencross. “I’ve got to find a way to bury them chances.

“It’s not like we’re not getting chances. We outplayed these guys again. It’s just luck. I don’t know what to say. It’s frustrating because the chances are there, but the puck’s not going in for us.”

In terms of fixing the problem, the team did take measures. Enough to freak out the crowd — and probably Garon — in the late stages of a tight contest.

“We started putting pucks toward the net more,” said Mark Giordano. “We started to drive the net, trying to generate chances. And we had chances. Again, a couple of unlucky breaks — a post, a broken stick. But you know what? Those things are going to happen, but we have to create ugly ones.”

The offensive dryspell is one problem.

Every bit as troublesome is the habit of surrendering the first goal. Or two.

“We’ve got to find ways to play with the lead for once,” said Giordano. “It seems like we’re coming from behind all the time.”

And so it was Tuesday.

At 5:14, the local side had connected when Jakub Voracek sped past Tom Kostopoulos and wired a low shot past goalie Henrik Karlsson. The hosts increased their lead in the second period when Jared Boll rapped a goal at 11:18.

Five minutes later, though, the Flames actually cashed in. Jarome Iginla sizzled a power-play pass to Olli Jokinen, who hammered in the puck to put the visitors within one.

“Scoring (only) one goal makes it tough,” said coach Brent Sutter. “We had some chances . . . didn’t capitalize on them.”

Of course, a couple of weeks ago, this had appeared to be a soft stretch of scheduling — Blue Jackets, Toronto Maple Leafs, Minnesota Wild, Wild, Blue Jackets.

But the Flames, mired in 14th place in the Western Conference, ended up prevailing in only two of those five dates.

Now looming is Thursday’s match against the Dallas Stars, one on the conference’s finest outfits.

“We have to win,” said Giordano. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a back to back, or whatever it is, we have to find energy to outwork teams. That’s what it comes down to. Putting the puck in the net isn’t always going to come easy.

“But we have to make those (goals) happen and get a lead.”

C-NOTES: Karlsson, splendid all night, stopped all 14 shots he faced from the Blue Jackets’ top line of Rick Nash, Kristian Huselius, Antoine Vermette . . . The Flames have signed LW Ryan Howse to an entry-level deal. Howse, a third-round pick in 2009, currently stars for WHL Chilliwack . . . Attendance was 12,443.

scruickshank@calgaryherald.com