Carbonneau shows his age, thankfully

4/24/99

By Tim Cowlishaw
The Dallas Morning News

For two games, Guy Carbonneau has been an unsolved mystery to the Edmonton Oilers. Now, he's a mystery to both teams.

While the Oilers were figuratively limping back to Edmonton, down, 2-0, after Friday's 3-2 loss, Carbonneau limped to the dressing room. Literally.

If Carbonneau's goal-scoring streak is to be snapped at two games Sunday, the Stars have to hope his playing streak doesn't conclude prematurely.

Carbonneau was gone from the dressing room quickly after the game. In keeping with hockey tradition, the club refused to discuss his status or confirm that he had been taken to the hospital for X-rays.

We'll know more when this series hits the Edmonton ice Sunday night. Maybe it was a minor thing. The Oilers would like to learn it is something else because they are nearly iced for this series, thanks to Carbonneau.

"He sees the playoffs as an unbelievable challenge," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. "He's a terrific leader for us. He lives for this time of year.

"He's a hockey player."

Carbonneau making key plays this time of year is old news. Think about it.

The clock is winding down in Game 5 against Detroit in last year's conference finals. The Red Wings are ready to put the Stars to rest. But with 1:25 left in regulation, Carbonneau fires a shot past Chris Osgood from the extreme right wing to set up overtime. That leads to a Stars' win, pushing Detroit to a sixth game.

It's Game 1 Wednesday night, a new playoff season but one with familiar faces. The Stars' scoring lines are being controlled by Edmonton, but with 6:53 showing on the scoreboard, Carbonneau fires another shot from a similar spot on the right side, and it gets past Tommy Salo for the game-winner.

In Friday night's 3-2 victory over the Oilers, Carbonneau didn't bother to wait around for late theatrics.

On his first shift - heck, he hadn't been on the ice 10 seconds - Carbonneau takes a pass from Dave Reid, spins away from Rem Murray in the high slot and sends another puck past Salo.

In a five-goal span for the Stars over four playoff games and two years, Carbonneau had 60 percent of the goals.

Why should we be surprised? Carbonneau had a 182-point season in junior hockey, same total as Wayne Gretzky had one of his years in juniors.

Of course, that was 19 years ago.

Carbonneau is 39 now and hasn't made a living as a scorer since, well, forever. He never had a 30-goal season in the NHL and hasn't had a 20-goal season since 1990-91. He hasn't had a 10-goal season in any of his four years with Dallas.

But he has been a great defensive player for two decades, and he still wins a ton of face-offs (61 percent Friday), and in the playoffs, yes, he's a scorer.

In the past two years, Carbonneau has scored 11 regular-season goals in 151 games. But he has five goals in 18 playoff games over the two seasons, and they have all been big.

Friday's was huge for the simple fact that it made history. The past two years, the Stars had failed to register a goal in a Game 2 contest against Edmonton. They suffered 4-0 and 2-0 losses at Reunion Arena both years to let the Oilers take the momentum back to Edmonton.

The goal was also huge because it gave the Stars breathing space for more than 40 minutes. When the clubs traded goals twice in a span of less than nine minutes in the third period, it was Carbonneau's early strike that kept Dallas ahead.

"The playoffs are in his blood," said center Mike Modano. "He lifts a lot of guys in here with his attitude. I think that was the plan [general manager] Bob [Gainey] had in bringing him here from Montreal. You get that winning feeling and you want to keep going back for more."

That's pretty much what happens with Carbonneau's career. He toils through a long regular season, then turns it on in the playoffs and decides to give it one more go. Others have tried to retire him and failed.

The Canadiens, the team he captained, the team he was born to play for, thought he was done in 1994 and traded him for Jim Montgomery. You remember him.

Right.

St. Louis decided he was finished in 1995 and traded him to Dallas for Paul Broten.

Four years later, Carbonneau is still doing his thing. He's the oldest player in the playoffs, but he has been the best player in this series, which is nice for the Stars since Edmonton's Salo has been No. 2.

The Stars hope to keep the momentum and make short work of this series when it moves north of the border. But for starters, Dallas just needs to keep Carbonneau in its lineup.

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