Flyers Notebook: Ken Appleby keeps Devils in neighborhood of win in setback to Flyers

PHILADELPHIA >> A tremendous first period by the Flyers Saturday enabled them to get a three-goal jump on the New Jersey Devils, who tried but failed to get back into the game in a sloppy second period.

While the Flyers held strong down the stretch to turn a two-goal advantage into a 3-1 victory, the Devils made them sweat only because of a wide-eyed newcomer in net, Ken Appleby.

The 22-year-old entered his first NHL game when starting goalie Keith Kinkaid was injured in a scramble while Ivan Provorov was scoring the Flyers’ third goal at 12:15 of the first period. The Devils’ usual starter, Cory Schneider, was scratched due to flu symptoms.

Appleby came on with his team in a state of chaos and promptly settled them down, stopping all 24 Flyers shots the rest of the way. But opposing goalie Michal Neuvirth was solid when he had to be, along with a sturdy defense, in gaining the club’s fifth victory in six games.

At least the Devils could feel good about their minor-league goalie.

“I think he gave us some life,” Devils coach John Hynes said. “Keith goes down there, you’re under siege a little bit and then goes out with an injury and Ken comes in and he’s kind of untested. He went in and made a couple of saves right away.”

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Flyers coach Dave Hakstol has gotten some light criticism in the past over a tendency to sit younger players. It seems clear that his boss, Ron Hextall, sometimes might share in that critical opinion, if only keeping it to himself.

But presented with the idea that Hakstol was sitting younger players — such as defenseman Travis Sanheim being a healthy scratch for the eighth game of nine — too much, Hextall quickly leapt to his defense.

“Most coaches take the guy with the track record,” Hextall said. “Some of what Travis is going through right now is good for Travis. I don’t want a young player sitting as long as he’s sat or certainly many more games, but there’s a lot you learn up there (in the press box).

“Part of it is a life lesson of, you have to earn things. Things aren’t going to be handed to you just because you’re a first-round pick (like Sanheim), or a highly paid guy or whatever. You have to earn things and that’s a huge lesson to learn in life.”

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Phantoms goalie Anthony Stolarz’s recovery from knee surgery still hasn’t seen him hit the ice.

Stolarz, not that long ago the so-called “goalie of the future,” suffered a left meniscus tear last April. He seemed ready for a training camp return but reinjured it in September in an apparently more severe tear.

At the time, Hextall projected a rehab of “months instead of weeks” after surgery, and Stolarz is more than four months into it without having resumed activities on skates.

As for an update, Hextall said Friday, “This year’s not shot. I won’t say he will play because I don’t know. But we’ll wait until we get into, probably February or March, before we have more clarity on it.”

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NOTES >> Flyers rookie defender Robert Hagg had eight hits against the Devils, thereby taking over the NHL lead in that category with 159. Anaheim’s Chris Wagner has 156, and Adam Larsson is a pretty distant third. ... The Flyers’ 3-0 lead at the end of one period Saturday against the Devils was only the ninth time this season they led after one period. They are 7-0-2 in those games. But only nine leads after one period in 46 games? “We just talked yesterday after practice that we need to have a good start and can’t be sleepy in the first,” Provorov said, “and I think that’s what we did today.