ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - Another game, another suspension in the Anaheim Ducks' tremendously testy playoff series with the Nashville Predators.
The Ducks lost left wing Jarkko Ruutu to a one-game suspension Thursday, although the Predators lost a much more valuable player when Ruutu collided with Martin Erat during Anaheim's series-evening victory in Game 4.
Erat was Nashville's co-scoring leader, but he didn't make the trip to Orange County for Game 5 on Friday night after incurring an upper-body injury.
Keeping up the high rhetoric that has been nearly as entertaining as this contentious matchup itself, Nashville coach Barry Trotz says Ruutu's hit on Erat was dirty, while Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle says the ruling is "absurd" and "mind-boggling."
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