Flyers win after goalie Michal Neuvirth collapses

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia Flyers remained six points back of the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with a 3-0 win against the New Jersey Devils at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday.
The Flyers (38-32-8) trail the Boston Bruins with four games remaining.

"Flyers coach Dave Hakstol] had a good talk saying, 'You can't control what the other teams ahead are doing. You just have to worry about ourselves and try and put pressures on those teams, to keep winning,'" Flyers right wing Colin McDonald said.
**WATCH: [All Devils vs. Flyers highlights**
The win was
overshadowed by a scary moment
when Flyers goaltender Michal Neuvirth collapsed in his crease while the teams were lining up for a neutral-zone faceoff 7:37 into the game. After initially appearing unconscious, Neuvirth was immediately tended to by medical staff. He eventually sat up and was stretchered off the ice after a delay of about 10 minutes.

Neuvirth was taken to Pennsylvania Hospital for observation, and was awake and alert, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said.
Anthony Stolarz, who arrived at the rink shortly before opening faceoff after being recalled from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League, finished the game and made 26 saves to combine on the shutout with Neuvirth, who made six saves.
McDonald, Brayden Schenn and Jordan Weal scored for the Flyers, who have won four in a row and are 7-3-0 in their past 10 games.

The Devils (27-37-14), who were shut out for the eighth time this season, lost their sixth in a row (0-4-2) and are 2-14-4 in their past 20 games.
"We weren't competitive enough in the first period and getting to our game," New Jersey coach John Hynes said. "I thought we did a better job in the second and third periods. We've got to be a little harder than we were."
Schenn opened the scoring by knocking in Claude Giroux's rebound 7:28 into the game on the power play.

McDonald made it 2-0 at 11:28. Weal scored a power-play goal from the left circle to make it 3-0 at 10:06 of the second period.
Devils goaltender Cory Schneider made 38 saves.

Goal of the game

McDonald, who was playing his first NHL game this season after being called up from the AHL earlier in the day, went around Andy Greene in the left circle before cutting to the net and tucking a forehand around Schneider for his first NHL goal since Nov. 27, 2015.

#

Save of the Game

Stolarz's first save came against Adam Henrique at 8:47 of the first period.
Stolarz was a late call-up because Steve Mason was ill and unavailable to play. He said he was informed he was being called up while on the bus with Lehigh Valley on the way to an AHL game at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and didn't arrive at Wells Fargo Center until 6:55 p.m. ET. Stolarz missed warmups and the opening faceoff before taking his seat at the end of the Flyers bench 28 seconds into the game.
The Flyers were fortunate Stolarz didn't get stuck in traffic; Eric Semborski, a former Temple University club team goaltender who was on hand in case an emergency goalie was needed, might have had to come in after Neuvirth left.
"[The driver] was going the speed limit, maybe 5 or 10 [mph] over, but it was kind of a smooth ride," Stolarz said. "It was just far being all the way from Wilkes-Barre (about 113 miles)."

Highlight of the game

Semborski, 23, nearly got into the game with 25 seconds remaining when Hakstol tried to put him in to replace Stolarz. Semborski stepped on the ice to cheers after the goaltending change was announced, but the referees immediately stepped in and made Semborski return to the bench.
Because Semborski was the emergency goaltender and was not in the lineup when the game began, he was not permitted to play unless Stolarz was injured.
"It was pretty short-lived, but it was cool to be out there," Semborski said. "It was awesome that they tried."

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Unsung performance of the game

Giroux won 22 of 26 faceoffs and had six shots on goal in 17:22 of ice time. He had one assist.

They said it

"We are all incredibly frustrated, but there's no excuses. There's just wins and losses in this game. We picked up another loss and there's no excuse for it." -- Devils center Blake Coleman
"He didn't get to the rink and probably have his gear on until the drop of the puck, so [that] shows his maturity and like I said, just real good solid poise going in there in that situation, especially under those circumstances." -- Flyers coach Dave Hakstol on goalie Anthony Stolarz

Need to know

Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas missed the third period because of an upper-body injury. He was helped off after being shaken up on a hit from Devils defenseman Dalton Prout 7:59 into the second period, but returned later to finish the period. … Devils defenseman Damon Severson played in his 200th NHL game.

What's next

Devils: Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG+, CSN-PH, NHL.TV)
Flyers: At the New York Rangers on Sunday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV)