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Devon Levi looking to build off of World Juniors success

January 23, 2021, 3:58 PM ET [1 Comments]
Anthony Travalgia
College Hockey Spotlight • RSSArchiveCONTACT
As Team Canada entered the Edmonton bubble for the 2021 World Junior Championship, Devon Levi was a bit of an unknown. But after his performance for Team Canada in the tournament, he’s certainly more of a household name, especially north of the border.

When Hockey Canada began its World Junior camp in November, Levi and fellow Canadian goalies Dylan Garand and Taylor Gauthier embarked on a battle for the spot atop the Canada depth chart, a spot that Levi would eventually earn.

When camp began, earning the starting job wasn’t the focus of Levi, however. He wanted to play well, develop his game and hope that things would fall into place.

All of the above worked out well for him.

“I was just thinking about playing well at that time and getting better, just practicing hard and doing what I can in the moment,” said Levi.

“Controlling the controllable, and then everything kind of feel into place from there. I started playing well which was what I was focusing on. When I took care of that, everything else took care of itself, I think the ball rolled well.”

Growing up in Montreal, Levi has had a ton of success as he worked his way up the ranks of hockey in Canada, most recently finding success with the Carleton Place Canadians of the Central Canada Hockey League.

But nothing he’s done in his hockey career topped his performance in the World Junior tournament. Levi finished the tournament with an absurd .75 goals-against average and a .964 save percentage. He also tied Justin Pogge for most shutouts at the World Juniors with three.

The stats and records were nice for Levi, but at the end of the day, there was much more important things for him to focus on.

“It’s definitely cool, it’s just not something I wrap my head around a lot, or get too caught up in. I’m just focusing on getting better every day and playing the game I love,” he said.

“I wasn’t playing to break any records, or playing for my numbers, I was playing for my teammates, playing for our team and I was playing for the country.”

Representing your country in the World Junior Championship is something every young Canadian hockey player dreams of. It’s a dream that started at a young age for Levi.

“It’s been a dream of mine since I was able to walk, to play in this tournament. To be able to go there and have an experience like that is a dream come true and It’ll be an experience I’ll be able to look back on for this rest of my life,” said Levi. “I’m super grateful that I was able to go, it was a great time, even without fans. I felt super connected to the country.”

Levi came into the tournament a bit under the radar as most of the roster was made up by players with CHL experience, or college hockey players with more experience under their belt.

With the start of the college hockey season delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Levi did not get a chance to make his college hockey debut as a Freshman for Northeastern before leaving for Canada’s camp in Red Deer.

Not being able to showcase his talents in the ranks of college hockey certainly did not help Levi’s attempt to earn the starting job for Canada, despite what he says his focus was.

“I have to give a huge thanks to my coaches for believing in me. It definitely wasn’t an easy move for them to believe in a guy that is coming from college and has sort of been under their radar because they’re obviously more present in the CHL,” said Levi.

“So a huge thanks to them for believing in me and giving me an opportunity.”

Levi suffered an upper-body injury in the tournament and has not appeared in a game for the Huskies since his return. While he says he is improving every day, he hopes to be back in the lineup soon, showing off what he learned with Team Canada in Edmonton.

“It was a great experience and I felt like I improved for sure, I feel like I’m a better goalie than I was when I got there. I worked with Jason LaBarbera, the [Team Canada] goalie coach and we were able to tune up some things in my game that I feel really good about,” said Levi.

“He’s a great goalie coach and I learned a lot about the game and myself at the tournament. I’m excited to play college hockey and take what I learnt from the tournament and apply it to my game.”

After coming up short in the Gold Medal game against Team USA in an entertaining contest, Levi is still hungry for another championship. As part of a talented freshman class at Northeastern, Levi hopes to help the Huskies reach the top of the mountain in the coming months.

“I’m a guy that’s going to give my heart and soul to the team, I’m going to do everything I can to win and give my teammates the best chance at winning and my coaches. Hopefully being able to be a piece of the puzzle and hopefully winning a championship,” said Levi.

“The whole team has to play well, come together. Goaltending has to be good to win a championship. I’m looking forward to hopefully being able to play my role and making the saves I need to and hopefully surprising the team with some other key saves and giving us the best chance at winning the championship.”

Without Levi between the pipes, the Huskies have gotten off to a good start in Hockey East with a 6-3-2 record, good enough for third in the conference entering Saturday.

“I just focus on what I have to do and don’t get tied up on the uncontrollable. I just know my job is to stop the puck and I do everything I can to stop it,” said Levi.

“I love to do it and I love playing, it’s sort of easy for me to give myself and work hard.”
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