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 Carbonneau's 35th playoff goal Top-seeded Stars rally to beat Oilers 2-1
Posted: Tuesday May 04, 1999 01:16 PM
DALLAS (AP) -- Veteran Guy Carbonneau has two Stanley Cup championship rings. He showed the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night how they can all get one if they will just keep getting him the puck. Carbonneau scored with 6:53 to play as the heavily favored Stars rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. Carbonneau's wrist shot from the right circle went between goaltender Tommy Salo's legs for the game winner. "Experience when the playoffs comes around is very important," Carbonneau said. "This was a big win. We came out and took their momentum away in the third period." Carbonneau only had four goals during the regular season but said he needs to take the heat off Mike Modano and Joe Nieuwendyk in the playoffs. "Teams expect them to score but sometimes somebody else has to step up," Carbonneau said. The second game of the best-of-7 series will be played in Dallas on Friday night. Carbonneau's 35th career playoff goal came on a perfect setup pass from Dave Reid after Blake Sloan had shot and missed. The 39-year-old Carbonneau is in his 16th playoffs. "It's really great for us to pull off a win like this after trailing for two periods," Sloan said. "We kept getting our chances and we finally cashed in." Reid said Edmonton played a tough physical game all night in front of the net. "We finally had a guy who was open," Reid said. "I just dropped the puck to him." Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock said "this was typical of all our games with Edmonton. They're always close and I don't see that changing. It was a physical game. Bodies were flying all over the place. It's either hit or be hit against Edmonton." Oilers coach Ron Low said Edmonton was caught by surprise early in the third period. "We weren't prepared on that first shift and they were jumping," Low said. "On the second goal Carbonneau just made a great play. With the exception of those plays I thought we played well." Losing 1-0, it took only 13 seconds into the third period for Dallas to tie the game. Jere Lehtinen chased the puck down behind the Oilers' goal and spun around the net to beat Salo on his glove side. Salo, who came to Edmonton from the New York Islanders in March and was 8-2-2 in the regular season, was making his first NHL playoff start. Outshot and outhustled for almost two periods, Edmonton stunned the Stars on a goal by Rem Murray with 1:06 left in the second period for a 1-0 lead. Ethan Moreau got the puck in a scramble behind the Dallas goal and passed it to Murray, who beat goalie Ed Belfour with a quick wrist shot. Until that point the Oilers had been outshot 15-3 in the second period, depending on Salo's sharp goaltending to keep the game scoreless. Belfour celebrated his 34th birthday by stopping 12 of 13 shots for the win. Salo faced 31 shots. The Stars, who had an NHL-best 114 points to win the Presidents' Trophy, had three wins and a tie against the No. 8-seeded Oilers in the regular season. Dallas knocked the Oilers out of the playoffs 4-to-1 last year after Edmonton had defeated Dallas in overtime of Game 7 to oust the Stars in the postseason two years ago. Edmonton played without its two top goal scorers, Bill Guerin and Josef Beranek, while Dallas was without Pat Verbeek and suspended captain Derian Hatcher. Guerin, Beranek and Verbeek are all injured.
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