WINNIPEG JETS Notebook

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This article was published 18/03/2012 (5010 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE NHL did not like the check Winnipeg Jets defenceman Mark Stuart put on Washington forward Marcus Johansson in Friday’s first period at the MTS Centre but only fined Stuart on Saturday for his actions.

Stuart was dinged the maximum-allowed amount of $2,500. He crossed the line for interference and came very close to being suspended for the high hit he used to knock down Johansson.

“I didn’t see the replay,” Stuart said. “It was obviously heat-of-the-moment, so I’m not sure and what exactly it looked like.”

The fine could be used against Stuart in the future, but he will be available to play tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes (7:30 p.m., TSN Jets, TSN 1290).

TONIGHT’S 72nd game of the regular season is likely to mark the return, again, of Jets defenceman Zach Bogosian.

The blue-liner has missed the last five games with a lower-body injury. He suffered the injury just one game after returning from a seven-game absence due to an upper-body injury.

“It felt good today,” Bogosian said after skating Saturday with his teammates at the MTS Iceplex. “Obviously I’ve been skating with the guys the last few days and I guess we’ll assess it tomorrow, but I feel good enough to play right now.”

Bogosian has expressed extreme frustration at missing most of the last month, but said Saturday he wants to be careful not to hurt the Jets’ cause.

“I don’t want to hurt the team if I’m out there and can’t move around very well,” he said. “But as I said, it’s feeling better.”

He very much liked what he saw of his teammates on Friday night from the press box. “I thought the guys played great. We got the job done.”

GOING the other way on the revolving door to the Jets’ medical bay is right-winger Eric Fehr.

Jets coach Claude Noel said Saturday Fehr could be out tonight with an upper-body injury that is not a reoccurrence of the shoulder problem that cost him the first seven weeks of the regular season.

“Might not be a player,” the coach said. “Don’t ask me the next question. We’ll wait to see what happens, if we recall somebody, who that’s going to be.”

Fehr appeared to tumble into the boards on Friday night and then went to the dressing room. But he returned to finish the game and played a total of eight minutes 10 seconds.

TANNER Glass was certainly amused by the inventive fans Friday that taunted Washington star Alex Ovechkin with a chant of “Crosby’s better.”

But Glass said Saturday he considered it over the line.

“I don’t like that stuff,” Glass said. “I’ve got no time for that. Cheer for a guy, even against him, but I think it’s a bit much. I mean, I wouldn’t be chanting that, but it’s fun. It’s unique.”

Asked if he’d be whispering any reference to it in Ovechkin’s ear given the chance, Glass replied: “I might as a player, but I don’t know about a whole building.”

SATURDAY at the Iceplex was much the same as any home game this season for the Jets.

A sellout.

There was no charge to watch the team practise for about an hour on Saturday but not all of the estimated 1,000 fans who descended on the Iceplex were able to get inside the practice rink, which holds only about 350. The crowd was early and was lined up inside and outside the building.

JETS’ 2011 first-round pick Mark Scheifele and prospect Ivan Telegin, a fourth-round pick of 2010, were healthy scratches for the OHL’s Barrie Colts in OHL action on Friday night.

Colts coach Dale Hawerchuk held both players out to rest them before the playoffs, which begin next week.

Both Scheifele and Telegin figured into the 2012 OHL coaches’ poll, released recently. In the Eastern Conference, Scheifele finished in the top three in voting for most dangerous in the goal area, best in faceoffs and best shootout shooter. Telegin was voted by the coaches as the conference’s best skater, tied in the voting with Ottawa’s Shane Prince.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca