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Stars-Red Wings News & Notes: No suspensions, just fines for Game 2 incidents Sunday, May 11, 2008 Mike Ribeiro said Sunday afternoon his slash on Detroit goalie Chris Osgood wasn't worthy of a suspension. A few hours the league rendered its verdict, agreeing with Ribeiro. There were no suspensions handed down in the late game incident where Osgood caught Ribeiro in the face with the butt-end of his goalie stick and Ribeiro retaliated with a slash to the netminder's chest. The league did fine both players undisclosed amounts and also fined Stars forward Steve Ott an undisclosed amount for a late game incident that saw him go after Detroit center Kris Draper. Ott received a roughing minor and a misconduct with five seconds left in the game for the infraction. Ribeiro didn't talk to the media about the incident, for which he received a match penalty, following Saturday's game, but he did meet with the media Sunday afternoon at the Stars' practice facility in Frisco and explained his side of the story. "I think if you guys see the replay he actually tries to do it," Ribeiro said about Osgood catching him with the butt-end of his goalie stick. "It's not like he accidentally hit me. He was kind of bent down, raised up and then clipped me in the face. If he doesn't do that I don't think I would have reacted to do what I did. A little bit of frustration and emotion in the game. I think it was more dangerous what he tried to do than what I did." Ribeiro said he didn't think he hurt Osgood, who fell to the ice and was attended to by Detroit trainers after taking the stick to the chest. "He gets shots harder than my slash," Ribeiro said. "On the moment it looks worse than it really is. If you look at the replay, I don't think even a player can get hurt with that." Before Sunday's ruling by the league, some Detroit players expressed doubts about a possible suspension for Ribeiro. The Red Wings said if the league gave only one game to Chris Pronger in last season's playoffs for a hit to the head of Detroit forward Tomas Holmstrom, then they had doubts Ribeiro would get anything for the slash on Osgood. "If he got a game or two it wouldn’t be a bad thing," Detroit forward Kirk Maltby told the Detroit Free Press. "But I don’t suspect anything is going to happen. I just look back to last year and what Pronger got for what I thought was much, much worse than what Ribeiro did, and it was only one game. We can’t really be concerned about it. We just worry about ourselves." As for Osgood, who said Saturday his butt-end to Ribeiro's face was an accident, was trying to move beyond the incident on Sunday. "Just a little altercation that's over with now," Osgood was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. Injury update: Lehtinen questionable, Barnes out Stars forward Jere Lehtinen is questionable after suffering what the team said is a leg injury in Saturday's 2-1 loss to the Red Wings. "Lehtinen is day-to-day, so we’ll see where he is tomorrow," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "Just soft tissue stuff. So it’s one of those ones that's hard to get a grasp on." Although there was a lot of speculation that Lehtinen was injured during a first period collision with teammate Brenden Morrow, Tippett said that wasn't the case. "It wasn’t that one, it was later in the game," said Tippett. Stars forward Stu Barnes, who has missed five games with concussion-like symptoms, will not play Monday. "He won’t be a player tomorrow," said Tippett. "We’ll just take it day-by-day with him." As for the Red Wings, they will be without forward Johan Franzen for at least Monday's game. He will stay behind in Detroit to undergo testing for headaches he has been having since early in the second round series against Colorado. He missed Saturday's game due to what is being called concussion-type symptoms by the team. "It caught me by surprise," coach Mike Babcock told reporters in Detroit. "We'd love to have him. he's a good player. But we've got a good team and we can go on with or without him." Notes
Quotable "That’s probably the most you’re going to see of it last night, hopefully. Obviously, frustration boiling over and not being able to control your emotions. But they’re not a very physical team by any means, but they do play the game. They play with the puck so well. And for us to try to get into some street fight ain’t going to work." Stars center Mike Modano on things heating up emotionally in the series between the Stars and Red Wings Quotable II "Well, just not this time of year. I don’t think they’ll suspend Osgood at all." Stars goalie Marty Turco when asked if the league would hand down a suspension because of what happened late in Saturday's game in Detroit
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