SAGINAW -- The Saginaw Spirit beat the Plymouth Whalers 4-3 in regulation Wednesday night at The Dow Event Center. 

Defenseman Peter Hermenegildo earned first star honors with a goal and two assists. 

The Spirit lead the OHL Western Conference and move within one point of the league leading Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors with 60 points and 28-8-3-1 record.

The Spirit scored the lone goal of the first period, with winger Jordan Szwarz notching a power play marker at 9:29 in the period from center Ivan Telegin and defenseman Peter Hermenegildo. 

The second period would see Hermenegildo score from the blueline to make it 2-0 Saginaw, courtesy assists from Telegin and winger Josh Shalla.  The Whalers would answer moments later, making it a one goal game after center Mitchell Heard scored from center Michael Whaley and winger James Livingston at the 12:02 mark.

Saginaw would respond early in the third period, with winger Brandon Saad scoring a power play goal at 5:45 to make it 3-1 Spirit.  Hermenegildo and defenseman Ben Chiarot assisted on the goal.  The back-and-forth action would continue with Whalers winger Garrett Meurs scoring a power play goal at 8:29 from Livingston to make it 3-2.  The Whalers would continue to push and in the final minutes emptied their net for an extra attacker, however the Spirit would take advantage for the situation with a power play, empty net goal at 18:50 from Chiarot making it 4-2.  The empty net goal proved critical, when Plymouth’s center Robbie Czarnik would later score a goal at 19:11 from Heard and Livingston.  The game ended by a score of 4-3.

Spirit goalie Mavric Parks posted 22 saves on 25 shots, and Whalers netminder Scott Wedgewood tallied 30 saves on 33 shots.