"The NHL home office apparently decided that Sharks forward Jamie McGinn had been punished enough. The league took no further action against McGinn for his check into the boards of Vancouver defenseman Aaron Rome during San Jose's 4-3 victory in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals.

McGinn received a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for the hit, which bloodied Rome and forced him from the game in the third period Friday night. But Saturday, the league passed on suspending McGinn after holding a disciplinary hearing.

And McGinn was sticking to his story. He said he didn't mean to injure Rome and was trying only to finish his check.

"It's too bad that he got hurt," said McGinn, who also received a game misconduct in the first-round series against Los Angeles. "I think I've looked at it 100 times. I tried to slow. I was finishing my check, and he hit his head on the glass."

McGinn added: "I'm not a dirty player. I don't try to take guys' heads off. I just try to play as hard as possible."

In the first period, McGinn knocked Christian Ehrhoff out of the game with a shoulder-to-shoulder check.

Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault had little to say about the NHL's decision not to suspend McGinn.

"I'm not going to comment on how the league interprets certain hits," Vigneault said. "Going to leave that up to them. That's all I want to say there."

Most of the Canucks chose their words carefully.

"Obviously, my opinion doesn't count for much," defenseman Kevin Bieksa said. "But you just look at the injury that happened on the play, and obviously Aaron was pretty banged up. But the league saw it differently, I guess.""