Andrew Gross

Staff Writer, @AGrossRecord

If the Devils players voted for first, second and third star of the game, there’s little doubt Dalton Prout would have been atop that list. And Travis Zajac would have been second.

The Devils lost a 10th straight road game in regulation, 3-0, to the Flyers on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center but, after the game, after the team expressed concern for Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth, who collapsed in a scary first period incident, the Devils players were quick to praise Prout and Zajac for sticking up for their teammates.

(By the way, here’s Flyers general manager Ron Hextall’s update on Neuvirth: “I don’t want to speculate, he’s had a little bit of a chest cold. There’s a few things going around. There has been all winter. We sent him over to the hospital for precautionary reasons. Everything so far has been good. Things are positive.”

Prout hit Radko Gudas after Gudas had leveled Devils rookie John Quenneville at 7:59 of the second period. Prout hit Gudas, who was skating toward him in the neutral zone, hard enough that Gudas had to be helped from the ice. So Prout wound up in a heavyweight bout with the Flyers’ Wayne Simmonds, though Prout said later he really wanted to fight Gudas.

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Gudas returned for the end of the second period before missing the third period.

“I think when you have a player on the other team that wants to hit like that and takes liberties and things like that, it’s important to have guys in the lineup and can stand up and make sure they’re not taking liberties on your players,” Devils coach John Hynes said. “I thought Dalton did a great job. That’s some of the element to his game. It’s important to have that part of your team and he did a good job today.”

Added Michael Cammalleri, “I thought they made a late hit or two to kind of initiate that. Really commendable job by some of the guys on our team, especially Prout and Travis in the second period to do really one of the hardest things in all of sport, which is to stand up physically and put your own body at risk for your teammates. A lot of respect for those guys.”

And said rookie Blake Coleman: “I thought Prout was an incredible teammate tonight for what he did out there tonight. It takes guts to what he did. We’re all happy to have him as a teammate. Obviously the same thing for Zajac for sticking up for Palms. In bad times like this you’ve got to look for some positives and those were two big ones today.”

Prout, acquired from the Blue Jackets for veteran defenseman Kyle Quincey just before the trade deadline, has a reputation as a physical player but that’s something the Devils needed to see more of from him.

Facing the Flyers in an often intense rivalry was the perfect spot for Prout to step up

“I saw him take a healthy run,” Prout said of Gudas’ hit on Quenneville. “I just stepped in there so they know we’re not going to get pushed around and there are no liberties to be taken with our team when we’re in vulnerable spots.”

Gudas, after taking out Quenneville, appeared to want Prout as well.

“He was coming at me,” Prout said. “I want to stop him in his tracks and confront him. He had his head down the whole time. I’m not sure who skates around with his head down looking for a change there. A melee ensued and the fight.”

Prout wound up with a career-high 20 penalty minutes as he got five for interference, five for fighting and 10 in a game misconduct.

Actually, Prout had high praise for Zajac.

Shortly after the Gudas-Prout-Simmonds incident, the Flyers’ Dale Weise took out Palmieri along the boards at 8:18 of the second period. Zajac, who was near the blue line, made a beeline for Weise down below the goal line after the hit.

Zajac got two for roughing while Weise got five for boarding and a game misconduct.

“I did see that and I was very proud of him and as a teammate,” Prout said. “It was a bad hit. Palms wasn’t expecting it. He left his feet. It was a head hit.”

As Prout walked out of Wells Fargo toward the team bus, Quenneville, who said he was fine, stopped Prout and thanked him profusely for sticking up for him.

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In addition to Quenneville, Hynes said he expected all his players to be OK, beyond the normal bumps and bruises. Miles Wood, who went to the bench in pain as it appeared he hurt his left shoulder, appeared to be keeping his left arm motionless after the game.

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The Devils were abysmal in the faceoff circle in the game, winning just 20 of 71 (28 percent).

Adam Henrique (6 of 19), Coleman (2 of 16) and Pavel Zacha (0 of 6), in particular, struggled.

“Faceoffs were, for sure, an issue,” Hynes said. “That hurt us five on five and being on special teams We just weren’t competitive enough in the faceoff circle.”

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Hynes seemed less than pleased that Flyers coach Dave Hakstol tried inserting emergency backup goalie Eric Semborski with 25.1 seconds left in regulation.

With No. 1 goalie Steve Mason ill, and Neuvirth taken off the ice on a stretcher, the Flyers relied on Anthony Stolarz, who stopped all 26 shots he faced after being an emergency recall from Lehigh Valley (AHL) earlier in the day.

In fact, Stolarz didn’t arrive at the arena until 6:55 p.m., rushing to get into uniform and appearing on the bench just as the game started.

Semborski is a Temple graduate who works as a hockey director at a local rink and has served as the Flyers’ emergency backup.

Semborski skated onto the ice to a huge ovation before the referees made Hakstol put Stolarz back in net.

Emergency backups are not allowed to play unless the on-the-roster goalie is hurt, which Stolarz was not.

Hakstol said after the game he simply did not know the rule.

“That was a little odd,” Hynes said, measuring his response very carefully. “It wasn’t something you expect.”

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Coleman drew an interference penalty at 19:58 of the first period when he checked Sean Couturier into Cory Schneider. Devils defenseman Ben Lovejoy then confronted Couturier after he bowled over the goalie.

“I was late to get to the guy on the switch,” Coleman said of the Flyers’ odd-man rush. “Obviously I don’t want to hit a guy into my own goalie. Whoever our D was came in a nd stuck up for Schneids. I got eye gouged by Simmonds. I thought it was a dirty play so I just kind of lost my cool and it just turned into a scrum there. Obviously I got two there and I can’t be putting my team down, especially since I’m on the penalty kill.”

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The Devils are off on Sunday and will practice at 11 a.m. on Monday before hosting a rematch with the Flyers on Tuesday at Prudential Center.

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