By C. Bryson Hull
Associated Press
Saturday, April 24, 1999; Page D3

DALLAS – Jere Lehtinen and Guy Carbonneau both scored for the second game in a row to give the Dallas Stars a 3-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Friday night and a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference series.

Jamie Langenbrunnner scored the game-winner with his first goal of the playoffs. His goal at 14:22 of the third period made it 3-1 before Edmonton's Doug Weight scored his first of the series with 3:11 remaining to make it a one-goal game again.

Game Two of the first-round series looked much like the opener, with both teams playing a grinding, tight-checking game.

Both goaltenders were strong, with Edmonton's Tommy Salo stopping 31 shots and Dallas' Ed Belfour turning away 17. Dallas outshot the Oilers 34-19.

Carbonneau, who at 39 is the oldest skater on any team in the playoffs, scored his second of the playoffs just 2:34 into the game, two seconds after a penalty to the Oilers' Bill Guerin expired.

Carbonneau spun and snapped a wrist shot past Salo from the slot after taking a feed from Dave Reid and fending off a hook by Rem Murray. On Wednesday, Carbonneau scored the game-winner to give Dallas a 2-1 victory.

The Stars were unable to capitalize on a 1:32 two-man advantage that came at 10:13 of the first on penalties to Murray and Chad Kilger. Salo turned away two strong one-timers from Brett Hull to keep it 1-0.

Both goaltenders turned away several strong chances to keep it scoreless for the next 48:54, until Edmonton's Mike Grier stuffed a wraparound chance behind Belfour at 11:28 of the third to tie the game.

Dallas rebounded quickly, when Lehtinen scored on a rebound from in front of the net 1:48 later.

In spite of Dallas' ineffective power play, which went 0-for-6, the Oilers put themselves back on their heels by spending much of the game in the penalty box. Dallas played a whopping 11:15 of the first period on the man advantage. Edmonton went 0-for-3 on the man advantage as well, to keep both power plays scoreless for the series.

Edmonton got a little spark – but no points – from the early return of their leading scorer, Guerin, who wasn't expected back from a knee injury until Sunday. He was injured April 12 against San Jose.