I have to agree with you 100%, because the clue is right there in the picture.
You can see how it is even soaked out over the intake runner at the very top of the pic.
It ran down that edge and then went into the gasket and coming out that little hole where it spread clear up to the heater hose on the intake.
The puddle would have formed between the edge of the manifold and cylinder head then as well rather then only spilling over. OP should put some good teflon tape on his bolts; my car did the exact same thing before I did.