Some say to win in hockey, the team starts from the goaltender out.

If any of the five boys’ teams that skate in Lewiston-Auburn win a championship, they will have to do it with inexperienced goaltending at the varsity level.

“It’s a different situation this year, but the goaltenders have been waiting for a while and it’s now their chance to prove what they have,” Edward Little coach Craig Latusha said.

Leavitt head coach Joe Hutchinson just chalks it up to a cycle that all the teams have hit at the same time.

“Sure, it doesn’t happen very often but the past is the past,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “It’s an opportunity for new kids to step up and take advantage of an opportunity.”

For St. Dominic Academy, it replaced two goaltenders this season, as the previous three seasons it had Austin Christopher and Grant Carrier carrying the load. This season, Caleb Dostie and Zack Roy took over the duties in net.

“That was two guys, obviously a little bit bigger in the net than we have now,” St. Dom’s coach Steve Ouellette said. “From a style standpoint, we have two guys who have been patiently waiting and putting in the time and just working and doing what they need to do. They’ll develop along the way, and I think they’ll adjust quickly and they’ll be fine. This is the whole reason they’ve been playing the game since they were a kid, this opportunity, and now it’s in front of them.”

The Lewiston Blue Devils’ Sam Zashut saw limited time last season as a back-up and  hadn’t seen much action behind seniors Evan Bourassa and Brian Wigant. This season, Nick Hawk has come in and seen majority of the playing time.

“They are all off to a pretty good start,” Lewiston coach James Belleau said. “We have four goaltenders in the program, all four have seen some varsity time already. Nick has had the majority of the time and has done a good job.”

The other goaltenders in the program are freshmen Gordon Ide and Jacob Strout.

Gray-New Gloucester/Poland backbone the last few years has been Calvin Shelley. Now that he has graduated, Nick Hemond has gone from the bench to the only goaltender in the program.

“He has done well. It has been a transition for him,” Gray-New Gloucester/Poland  coach Travis Jalbert said. “He pretty much has gone from not seeing any time over the past two years to he’s our only goalie. He’s been forced into it pretty heavy, and not only that, we have had a few games where he has seen 40-45 shots.”

Jalbert said they are trying to limit most of the shots to the perimeter and limit rebounds.

“It’s good not be on the the bench,” Hemond said. “You get a lot of shots and take a beating, but playing, there’s nothing like it.”

For the previous two seasons, the Leavitt Hornets had to convert Nick Allen, who was a skater growing up, to netminder. He turned in his stick for pads to help the team out. Now freshman Ashton Dozois, who is a natural netminder, is playing both at the varsity and junior varsity level for the Hornets.

“So far it has helped quite a bit,” Hutchinson said of having someone who has played goal growing up. “He’s still a freshman and he has a lot to learn with his experience and the way he moves. We saw him this summer and his movement isn’t where it was this summer.”

Hutchinson doesn’t think it’s a huge concern as Dozois is still making the transition from coming back to hockey shape as he was on the football team that won the Class C State Championship in November. He also said he doesn’t want Dozois to think he has to be the “hero,” but rather concentrating on making the routine saves.

Edward Little may have the most experienced goalie out of the five schools in junior Zach Gosselin. ButLatusha is giving playing time to Devin Dumont also. The third goalkeeper is senior Mike Hammond.

“Zach Gosselin is a junior goaltender who, to be quite honest, hasn’t been pushed specifically last year,” Latusha said. “We had a new goalie and (Gosselin) was the one that had the most experience. This year we have (Hammond) that has come back for his second year and (Dumont) with a lot of hockey experience and (Gosselin) has to push himself to get better.”

The common theme from the coaches is that they are not looking too far into the future.

“We have three goaltenders this year, which is more than usual,” Latusha said. “It’s a day-by-day basis to see who starts. Zach Gosselin played goal for us last year all year. We have a senior who has come in after two years and really has improved in his game.”

Belleau also said he doesn’t have one workhorse. Either Hawk or Zashut could start depending on the game.

For programs like Gray-New Gloucester/Poland and Leavitt that might not have the depth in the youth system of the Twin Cities schools, it’s important to keep a close eye on who’s coming up through youth hockey and the middle school programs.

“We do have another (goalie) coming up. He’s in seventh grade,” Hutchinson added. “So there’s another goalie on the horizon.”

Jalbert said his middle school program has four goaltenders currently.

“Next year will be different for (Hemond) too because he will also assume a mentorship,” Jalbert said.

Belleau added you can’t have too much depth at that position. He has made sure all four of his goalies are getting playing time to stay sharp. He also stated it creates healthy competition, and he hopes they embrace it.

At the same time, goaltenders like getting as many reps as possible.

“I think he likes it,” Hutchinson said of Dozois playing varsity and junior varsity. “Right now, he’s out of shape from football and getting back into hockey shape. It’s helping him right now but he’s tired by the end of the games.”

For Jalbert, if Hemond can’t play for some reason, he hasn’t figured out what he would do.

“We don’t have a plan ‘B’ and we hope we don’t have to figure out a plan ‘B.’” Jalbert said. “It makes it tough to in practice when you only have one goalie. We have one of my friends that comes out and suits up for us some nights so we have two goalies to look at .”

Hemond added there’s pressure to perform and not be sick, but is glad he can make an impact in a game.

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