Noble are the few who strap on the pads and convince themselves that eating rubber biscuits for the better part of two hours is fun.

Four years ago, any high school hockey team in Maine who could produce a single, solid goaltender had a chance to produce a single, solid state championship.

In 2002, Lewiston’s Matt Roy outdueled Ryan Shelley of Cheverus in a classic, multiple-overtime game to earn the Blue Devils their 20th state title.

In 2003 and 2004, Edward Little’s Kris Bennett was solid, and aside from Aaron Buzzell of Bangor and perhaps Brian Nason across the river in Lewiston, he was the top goaltender in Class A East.

In 2005 and 2006, Cheverus dominated everyone, thanks in part to Mason St. Hilaire and Brian Cox in net. There was little doubt, from season’s beginning, which team would emerge as the state’s best.

But last year, the ice started to get a bit foggy.

Goaltenders, missing for the better part of four years, began to emerge all over the state. Hockey players, coaches, fans and armchair journalists know that a good goaltender can make the difference in an otherwise lopsided game.

Biddeford had the best goalie.

Biddeford won the state title.

That goaltender, Tony Dube, was only a junior.

So was Mark Airoldi of Kennebunk, statistically No. 2 last season.

So were Max Wiley and Will Emerson of St. Dom’s, and Derek Kump of Falmouth. So was Alex Lafreniere of Lewiston. So were Nolan MacDonnell of Waterville, Andrew Riley of Bangor and Matt Pellerin of Brunswick. Lewiston’s Dylan LaBonte? Just a sophomore.

Where did they come from?

The easy question, for which there is no easy answer, is, “Where did all of these goalies come from?”

Four years ago, goalies were not on anyone’s radar. Blue-chip defensemen, though, were.

“Three years ago, everyone had a top defenseman or two,” St. Dom’s coach John Pleau said.

Pleau, then an assistant under the late Bob Boucher, had three – Mike Carpenter, Ryan Guerin and Matt Manson – on his team. Cheverus had two more in Matt Duffy and Kevin Marchesi.

“Just those five right there, those are five college defensemen, on just two teams,” Falmouth coach Scott Rousseau said. “Never mind the solid defensemen who didn’t go on to play in college. We were popping out college defensemen all over the place.”

For years, goaltending was an afterthought for most youngsters.

“They wanted to be the difference-maker up front, getting the glory for scoring goals,” Lewiston coach Norm Gagne said. “With guys like Martin Brodeur, though, and the big goalies at UMaine, people started to realize how important being a goalie is.”

That shift, surmised Gagne, drew more top athletes to the goaltending position.

Beating the system

One year later, with goaltending talent returning across Class A, the challenge for the elite teams becomes perfecting much more tactical, much more defensive style of play.

“We know we’re going to play a great goalie every night,” Falmouth head coach Scott Rousseau said. “It’s to the point now where we don’t even focus on that as a team, because we know every night is going to be the same.”

“There’s an overabundance of goaltenders in the state right now,” agreed St. Dom’s coach John Pleau. “That should lead to low goal scoring. We’re used to having kids score 25 or 30 goals in a season, but I don’t know that you’ll see that this year.”

Some teams will simply carry over last year’s philosophy. Kennebunk went six straight games last season without allowing a goal, thanks in large part to Airoldi.

“Pretty soon, you try to make the perfect play and it gets in your head,” Rousseau said. “It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, when you let that happen.”

Falmouth sees Kennebunk, Biddeford, St. Dom’s and Portland, which has Falmouth transplant Zach Meoli between the pipes.

Lewiston, in Eastern Class A, doesn’t have it any easier, with Waterville, Bangor, Brunswick and even Edward Little, with Adam Loudermilk, posing potential goaltending problems.

“You’re going to see a lot of teams doing what we plan on doing,” Gagne said, “and that’s shoot and crash the net. We can’t get too cute, we just need to put the puck away.”

Gagne needs only to look at the last official game his team played – last year’s state title game. In that game, ahead 1-0, the Blue Devils’ Jordan Bourgoin tried to slide what appeared to be an easy shot along the ice past Dube. Dube inexplicably got across and made the save, a save that would have been impossible had the puck been in the air.

“If he bangs that home, maybe it’s a different game,” Gagne said.

The key, echoed by coaches across the state, is get the pucks on net, get the rebounds, and drive the puck home with authority.

“Ninety percent of the goals scored are going to be on rebounds,” Gagne said. “It’s going to be hard to beat any of these goalies clean.”