By Carl Chimenti –
SAGINAW – In a game against one of his top rivals, Scott Wedgewood was perfect.
The Plymouth Whalers’ goaltender stopped all 35 shots he faced, leading his team to a 2-0 win over the Saginaw Spirit in front of 2,628 at the Dow Event Center in Saginaw.
Wedgewood posted his first shutout this season and fourth career OHL whitewash, turning back 13 shots in the first period, seven in the second and 15 in the final period. For his effort Wedgewood was named the game’s first star.
The game got of to a rousing start, as the Spirit’s Vincent Trocheck and the Whalers’ Mitchell Heard dropped the gloves just eight seconds into the contest. Following the tilt, Trocheck was handed a game misconduct for removing his helmet during the fight, which also comes with an additional automatic one-game suspension. That will break his current 154-game playing streak when the team plays its next game, in Ottawa.
Trocheck tried to argue that his helmet accidentally fell off, but the officiating crew would not buy it. 
The ejection put the Spirit at a disadvantage, as they were also missing Brandon Saad, who suffered an-upper body injury last week.
J.T. Miller opened the scoring with his ninth goal of the season at 9:12 of the first period, on the power-play, after splitting the Spirit defense. Levi Austin and Beau Schmitz drew the assists on the only goal the Whalers would need. Rickard Rakell added an insurance goal at 2:42 of the second period when his wrist shot caught the top shelf past the sprawling goaltender Jake Paterson, who stopped 29 of 31 shots. Heard and Wedgewood were credited with the helpers.
The rough stuff continued following a hit-to-the-head penalty from Spirit forward Dan Pawlaczyk (Madison Heights), after Dario Trutmann went after Pawlaczyk, just past the mid-way mark of the second period. Pawlaczyk was tossed out of the game and will possibly face a suspension for a league reviewable offense. From there the goaltenders took over and shut the doors down. The Spirit finished their home stand at 2-3. Saginaw will take to the road for a three-game eastern road swing next weekend, Nov. 11-13, at Ottawa, Belleville and Kingston.
Game notes
- Wedgewood was the first star, with Miller second star, and Paterson the third star.
- Saginaw out-shot Plymouth 35-31.
- Plymouth was 1-for-3 and Saginaw 0-for-5 on the power play.
- Plymouth improved its record to 10-6-2, while Saginaw fell to 7-11.