You cannot call any one Dallas Star the hero of the Finals; it’s so hard to win the Cup that every player must be a hero to accomplish it. Without doubt, the best hockey of their careers was played by Belfour, Modano, Nieuwendyk, Hull, Hatcher and the rest, in spite of every adversity. And one ex-Canadien, on a bum knee, at an age when most have hung up their skates, contributed his talent, his leadership, and his spirit. That spirit was born years ago in Montreal, and taught to Carbonneau, Ludwig, Keane and Skrudland; now it ignited the hearts of Stars both young and old.

He would soon make amends: Game 3 was Carbonneau at his best. The Stars were shorthanded eight times, down two men twice. And yet, miraculously, they held the Sabres to 12 shots, tying the record for the Finals. Carbo led the penalty-killers, won faceoffs, blocked shots, and generally gave the Sabres fits. Killing off a five-on-three at the end of the first period, Guy broke the Sabres’ Alexei Zhitnik’s stick…twice. Buffalo didn’t get off a shot. At the end of the game the Stars once again took a penalty, then were short an extra man when Hasek was pulled. The penalty killers prevailed, and just before the horn, Carbonneau and Keane simultaneously went down to block Zhitnik’s final shot. "Carbo’s been doing it for 25, 30 years now," commented Craig Ludwig. "He’s not the fastest player on the ice, but he’s one of the toughest to play against because he’s so smart." When asked about the impact of all his successful penalty killing, Guy replied, "It got me tired." He had won 17 of 29 faceoffs. He had played 19 minutes, 30 shifts. The Stars had their second win.

In their inevitable tradition of losing Game 4’s, Dallas lost Game 4. But Game 5 was another triumph for the defensive Stars, led by Eddie Belfour to a 2-0 shutout. The Stars were within one game of the Cup.

The morning of Game 6, I went for a three mile run. A half mile into it, I decided to count silver cars, silver for the Stanley Cup. I counted exactly 16 before I reached home. It took me less than a half hour to get to 16, such a short road compared to the one Guy Carbonneau and the Stars had traveled in the past 60 days seeking their 16 wins. Now the goal was as close as 60 minutes away.

But the road to the 1999 Cup was about as hard as they come, and the home stretch was going to be the hardest of all. That 60 minutes of hockey came and went. Shift after shift passed before our eyes, tense hour after tense hour rolled by to the point of absurdity. During the fifth (fifth!) intermission, we all had to lie down and nap…meanwhile, Carbonneau, playing on his sprained knee, was getting fluid by IV. I had given up all hope of a win, but I forgot to consider one thing: The Ghosts of the Forum, the spirits of the Canadiens, were currently on a road trip down south.

"There’s a lasting effect on people who learned how to play the game for the old Montreal Canadiens," said Mike Modano. "It gets in your blood, and it trickles down to everybody around them. The experience, the values they’ve learned rub off on you. How to be unselfish, to be patient, to play with passion has rubbed off on me."

At 1:33 a.m. Buffalo time, Modano, playing with a broken wrist, passed the puck to Brett Hull, playing with a blown-out knee and two strained groins. Hull shot, kicked the rebound to his stick, and snapped the puck into the net.

Now that was something that made the Ghosts smile.

And in the next minute, one of their favorite sons, Guy Carbonneau, was drowning in his Texas teammates.

Meanwhile, another French Canadian spirit—watching his beloved son—was no doubt smiling too.

from
'This is for you, Fort Saskatchewan'
Richard Matvichuk bringing Stanley Cup home
by Jack Kindred
for The Fort Saskatchewan Record, Fort Saskatchewan/Alberta
August 17, 1999

As all followers of the Stanley Cup playoffs will recall, the final series between the Stars and the Sabres was a hard-fought one that could have gone either way.

The turning point in that final game, says Matvichuk, came between the second and third overtime period as the team sat in the dressing room assessing their game plan.

"It was Guy Carbonneau who stood up and said 'Let us play for the people around us, the people who have supported us and those who have gone before us'," Richard remembers.

"That did something to our team," Matvichuk says.

And, then, in the third overtime period, the scorekeeper was hit on the head with a flying puck and the play was stopped. Again, Carbonneau addressed the bench with a patriotic plea, and at 5:19 of the third OT period, Brett Hull ripped the winning shot.

"Carbonneau's a warrior" by Jim Matheson for The Edmonton Journal
"Carbonneau shrugs off the years" by Tim Cowlishaw for The Dallas Morning News
"Carbo still steams at trade" by Red Fisher for The Montreal Gazette
"What a Guy" by Joe Pelletier for LCS Hockey
Guy's Journal #4: "Stars have been through too much to be overconfident" for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram