Stolarz proves healthy fill-in as bug hits goalies

PHILADELPHIA >> So Steve Mason has a recent history of being shelled by the Devils. He was going to be on bench duty behind the night’s starting Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth.

That is, he was going to be until the nausea really hit him late in the afternoon.

Calls went out to the Phantoms to send goalie Anthony Stolarz south. Except he was on his way to play in WilkesBarre. A car was hired. Bestcase scenario is he’d arrive just before the start of this game Saturday night. So old Temple goalie and Comcast-Spectacor employee and in-house amateur Eric Semborski was called upon to be ready. Stolarz arrived just in time, though, so Semborski would watch the game from the locker room. The show really got interesting when he saw an image of Neuvirth lying flat on his back, unmoving.

Once the wave of relief passed when Neuvirth slowly began to move and after he’d been carted off the ice on a stretcher while giving a small wave to the Wells Fargo Center crowd, it was learned Neuvirth was going to be OK. He was overnighted to Pennsylvania Hospital with what’s believed to be whatever bug or flu that took Mason down, too.

Sickness aside, though, the reason the Flyers are still somewhat alive in the playoff race is that the ice-cold Stolarz played so well in a 3-0 shutout victory over the Devils. The Flyers played superb on both ends of the ice, winning their fourth consecutive game and fifth in the last six ... all essentially when the playoff pressure heat had dimmed to lukewarm.

By the time they face-off against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden Sunday night, the Flyers could be eliminated from contention, should the Bruins beat Chicago in their Sunday matinee meeting.

Regardless, Stolarz’s performance was remarkable, given that he didn’t arrive at the building until 10 minutes before the scheduled starting time. He has played in five Flyers games this season, and has a goals-against average of 1.42 and a saves percentage of .951.

“You kind of get used to it,” said Stolarz. “You don’t take too many warmup shots as a backup goalie, anyway.”

Stolarz stopped all 26 shots the Devils put on him. He did allow one to get by, but that Andy Greene shot that bounced off Claude Giroux and rebounded past Stolarz was waved off when a review revealed the Devils were off-side.

Actually, the whole night seemed a little tilted. But the way it ended sent the whole thing off its axis.

Despite a rule that Semborski was not allowed on the bench, he came out of the locker room to watch the last couple of minutes while standing up on the Flyers’ bench.

Remembering Semborski from earlier in the season, when he served as a backup with Chicago in town and goalie Corey Crawford needing an emergency appendectomy, the fans began to chant for him. And then, with 24.5 ticks left — and the Flyers with a faceoff in their defensive zone — always proper coach Dave Hakstol suddenly sent the Temple grad in for Stolarz.

Hextall, his mind with Neuvirth for much of the night, seemed to be taken aback.

“I was shocked,” he admitted. And he didn’t seem to be kidding.

So was the young Semborski.

“I was just excited that they were actually trying to get me out there,” he said. “I was a little upset when I had to come right back off, but it was cool being out there, and I appreciate them trying to get me out there.”

Semborski wasn’t even to the crease when the game officials began waving him off. Since Stolarz was already enlisted as an emergency goalie, Semborski was ineligible to play in the game. Had Stolarz gotten hurt, another player would have had to get in the crease.

Said Hakstol: “I didn’t check the rules . ... But he got out on the ice for a second, anyway.”

Oh. With a faceoff defensive zone?

“It turned out for the best,” the coach said. “We got him out of there before the drop of the puck.” And if they hadn’t? “I don’t know,” Hakstol said, “and I’m glad we didn’t have to find out.”

Now the Flyers will wait to see how Mason is for Sunday. If he can’t go — and Neuvirth definitely won’t — then Stolarz would start with his fellow Phantom Alex Lyon as the backup goalie at MSG.

The Flyers aren’t going anywhere this season. Might as well have fun doing it. in the