Injured Kunitz may miss more time

After sitting out eight playoff games because of a broken hand, Ducks winger Chris Kunitz returned to the lineup for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals and lasted barely more than a period before being sidelined again, this time because of an abdominal injury.

It forced Kunitz to miss the Ducks’ 3-2 victory over Ottawa on Monday and may keep him from playing in tonight’s Game 5 at the Honda Center.

“We thought that Kunitz would react to the treatments that he received and be available to us for Game 4,” Coach Randy Carlyle said. “We made a decision, along with him, that it would be in the best interest for him not to play because he would not be able to give us the 110% that was going to be required.

“As far as the status for tomorrow, we think he’ll again be a game-time decision.”

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The Senators’ Jason Spezza, on the Ducks’ relentless attack over the first four games of the finals: “They do a good job of taking the momentum out of the game a lot of times. Maybe that shows that we can’t generate a forecheck and cheat the defenseman back.

” ... I think we’re in this together. We’ve gotten here together. We’ve gotten ourselves down 3-1 together and we can get ourselves out of it. But it has to be together.”

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The Ducks’ victory in Game 4 on NBC got a national rating of 1.9 and had an average viewing audience of 2.8 million. In Los Angeles, the rating was a 3.6.

U.S. markets that had higher ratings were Buffalo, with a 9.8, Denver (5.8), Indianapolis (4.6) and Minneapolis (4.2). NBC is averaging a 1.5 rating for the two games during the finals that it has televised. At the same juncture last year, NBC was averaging a 1.8 for the finals between Carolina and Edmonton.

The average viewing audience in Canada for Monday’s Game 4 was 2.859 million, the largest for the CBC during these playoffs. For Game 3, the Canadian audience averaged 2.533 million at any one time. The U.S. audience for Game 3 was 1.63 million.

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According to the NHL, the Ducks recorded a $15.38 merchandise-per-capita (average dollars in sales per person) for the first two games of the finals, which is a 75.4% increase over last year’s two finalists, Carolina ($9.26) and Edmonton ($8.28). It’s also up 81.6% over the average of the 2004 finals with Tampa Bay ($8.56) and Calgary ($8.38).

“Our fans have proved all season that hockey is alive and well in Southern California, and this is another example of that,” said Tim Ryan, Ducks executive vice president.

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Bob Murray, Ducks vice president of hockey operations, has reportedly withdrawn his name from consideration to become the Blue Jackets general manager.

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“The Ducks Live” post-game show -- with host Bill Macdonald, Brian Hayward, John Ahlers and Christine Nubla -- will be telecast live from the Honda Center tonight right after the game.

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Times staff writer Larry Stewart contributed to this report.

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