Santa Claus came a little early for the Grande Prairie Storm.
He showed up wearing a white jersey with the No. 31 on it last night at Revolution Place Arena.
Santa was goaltender Charles-Olivier Levesque, who gifted his teammates with a 4-3 shutout win over the Whitecourt Wolverines!
The Storm netminder, a native of Rimouski, Quebec, was outstanding while helping the Storm to their 12th home win of the season and a three-point lead over the fifth place Sherwood Park Crusaders in the North Division of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
Levesque faced 44 shots en route to his 12th win over the season including four in the five-minute three-on-three overtime – one of which was a clear-cut breakaway by Whitecourt forward Ben Evanish.
Thanks in big part to Levesque's 13 saves the Storm took a 1-0 lead late in first (at 19:51) odd stick of Parker Smyth.
Levesque faced another 13 shots in the second watching the teams trade goals.
Tyr Thompson tied it at 1-1 at 6:22 and then Smyth's second of the night, and 10th of the season, restored the Storm lead at 17:40.
Whitecourt fired 14 shots at Levesque in the third. Two by Evanish made it 3-2 Whitecourt. The first was at 1:34 and the second at 2:42.
Edouard Michaud, on the powerplay, forced overtime when he scored at 7:02 with the game's only powerplay goal to make it 3-3.
Levesque's OT heroics allowed the game to go to a shoot-out where Levesque didn't allow a goal on three tries. Connor Blake got the only SO tally beating Whitecourt netminder Xavier Potvin, who looked at 30 shots on the night, with a wrist shot.
The win moved the Storm to within 12 points of the third place Wolverines.
The team is off for Christmas returning to the ice on Dec. 29-30 when they host the Spruce Grove Saints.
