DETROIT — On a night when the Dallas Stars lost the second game of their playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings, they could also lose their leading scorer, Mike Ribiero, depending upon how the NHL responds to a match penalty that Ribiero received as time ran out.
Ribiero took a two-handed swing at Red Wings' goaltender Chris Osgood in the dying seconds of Detroit's 2-1 win on Saturday night, which gave them a 2-0 series lead in the Western Conference final.
Afterwards, the Stars argued that Ribiero's action were a response to a butt-end delivered by Osgood seconds before. Osgood proclaimed his innocence, saying his intention was to protect defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom from what looked to him like an attempted charge.
Asked directly if he butt-ended Ribiero, Osgood answered: “Not knowingly. I was just trying to stand over there, and make sure our best player didn't get run. I was standing my ground. Whether I hit him or not, it was an accident.”
Osgood went on to say again: “If I did it, it was an accident.
“I don't think that justifies a two-hander across the top of the net. He could have gone about it a different way. He could have said something to me. We're professionals out there. We have to go about it in the right manner.”
Stars' coach Dave Tippett said he wondered what Ribiero was doing losing his cool in that manner – until he saw a videotape replay of the incident.
“Ribiero's actually letting up on the guy coming behind the net and Osgood just sticks his stick out like that, butt-ends him and catches him right here,” said Tippett, indicating a spot just below his right eye.
“Ribiero's not going to turn around and chop the goalie like that without having something happen. That's how I looked at it first, ‘what's he doing?' But then I looked at the tape. Whether Osgood was thinking he was going to run the guy behind him, I'm not sure, but he [Ribiero] was slowing up and he got the butt-end underneath the eye.”
Does Tippett expect any supplementary discipline as a result of the play? “We'll see. That's for the higher powers to figure out.”
Earlier, the Stars lost a top-six forward in Jere Lehtenin when he suffered a leg injury, according to Tippett, who suggested his player was day-to-day and would be re-evaluated Sunday in Dallas. The Stars took a charter flight home immediately after the game.
Ribiero was not available for comment afterwards.
Stars' goalie Marty Turco called it “a pretty dangerous play on their part – a butt-end to the eye. It's one thing to engage in a physical battle; that's pretty gutless if you're hitting someone in the face, if that's what did happen, and I'm pretty sure it did. We'll see what transpires in the next little while.”
