Dave Isaac

@davegisaac

PHILADELPHIA — At 7:37 of the first period Saturday night, Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth collapsed in the goal crease and had to be helped off the ice on a stretcher.

He was taken to Pennsylvania Hospital for observation and, according to Flyers general manager Ron Hextall, was awake and alert.

During a stoppage in play with the faceoff in the New Jersey Devils end of the ice, the Flyers goalie fell down and appeared to pass out. Several teammates jumped off the bench and helped trainer Jim McCrossin get to the ice to tend to the goalie. Neuvirth had made six saves before leaving the game.

"He wasn’t feeling that well in the locker room and we were worried about him," winger Colin McDonald said on the Flyers' TV broadcast of the game at first intermission. McDonald scored later in the period to give the Flyers a 2-0 lead.

He wasn't the only one.

The other goalie in the tandem, Steve Mason, was deemed out late in the afternoon because he was ill. He wasn't slated to get the start anyway.

Anthony Stolarz, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms goalie, was in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania at 5 p.m., thinking he was suiting up for a game between the Phantoms and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The Flyers called and told him to hustle down to Philadelphia because Mason was ill.

They also called Eric Semborski, a Temple University alum with no pro experience who was called to duty in a Flyers game on Dec. 3. Semborski works for the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation and dressed for the Chicago Blackhawks when goalie Corey Crawford had an emergency appendectomy.

Semborski thought he was backing up Neuvirth and instead was sitting in a back room just in case something happened to Stolarz.

Stolarz entered the game without a warm-up while Neuvirth was carted off the ice.

Neuvirth had movement in all his extremities and was conscious when he was carted off.

"It’s obviously pretty scary when you see your goaltender just collapse like that," Chris VandeVelde said on the Flyers radio first-intermission broadcast. "Not sure really what happened if he fainted or got lightheaded or what, but pretty scary and glad to see he was moving and functioning when he was rolled off the ice."

Ironically, Neuvirth was involved in another game with a similar situation. On Oct. 9, 2010, Neuvirth was with the Washington Capitals when Atlanta Thrashers goalie Ondrej Pavelec collapsed on the ice and was later diagnosed with a neurocardiogenic syncope episode.

Neuvirth, 29, was signed to a two-year contract extension on March 1.

Dave Isaac; 856-486-2479;disaac@gannett.com