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Canadiens begin six-game road trip against Flames

Feb 9, 2009 - 2:18 PM Montreal (29-18-6) at Calgary (30-18-4), 9:00 p.m. EST

CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- The Montreal Canadiens look to improve their struggling defense when they open a season-high six-game road trip against the Calgary Flames on Monday.

Montreal has surrendered four or more goals in five of its last nine contests and the shoddy efforts continued in Saturday's 5-2 setback to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Rookie Matt D'Agostini scored a power-play goal and Tom Kostopoulos also tallied for the Canadiens, who fell to 2-7-0 in their last nine games - scoring two or fewer goals six times during that stretch.

All-Star Carey Price has notched just two wins since coming back from a groin injury on January 21. Since his return, he has started eight straight games but surrendered three or more goals in seven.

Calgary, meanwhile, is trudging through a four-game losing streak and hopes to cure its woes before embarking on a three-game road trip.

The Flames are coming off a 2-1 setback to the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday, during which goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff was rested for the first time in seven games.

The Finnish netminder has won all 30 of his team's games this season and needs 18 more to tie current New Jersey Devil Martin Brodeur's single-season record of 48, set in 2006-07. Calgary has 30 games remaining.