Adrien Lemay’s goalie pads used to be white and blue, with a hint of orange.

These days, they look more like they’ve been run over by a hundred race cars, with each applying its brakes to leave a scuff mark or two.

Lemay saw a lot of rubber in his 19 regular-season games with the Lewiston Maineiacs in the winter and spring of 2009, nine times seeing upwards of 40 shots. Once, he almost hit 70.

But he was used to it. And he never complained.

Less than six months after the Maineiacs’ season ended with a playoff loss to league champion Drummondville, Lemay is back between the pipes for the Lewiston Maineiacs. The team in front of him is different, and the team’s overall philosophy is different.

But Lemay, pads and all, is still the same old goaltender with the same old goal: To give himself a chance to play professional hockey after his final season of junior hockey.

 A (very) long road

That Lemay is even playing in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is a testament to his character. An undersized keeper on a national championship-contending Midget AAA team in Quebec, Lemay earned a chance to try out with the Quebec Remparts.

“When I was in Midget AAA, we went to the national championships,
and they were in Alberta,” Lemay said. “A lot of teams out there saw me
play, and wanted me to go out there, but I told them I wanted to give
it a shot with the Remparts.”

Lemay got caught in a numbers game, behind owner and coach Patrick Roy’s son, Jonathan.

“There
were some teams in Saskatchewan who wanted me to play, too, and I had
to choose between five teams,” Lemay said. “I picked the one I thought
was best for me.”

The best team, according to Lemay, was Battlefords of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

“It
was a good chance for me to be away from home, to be more mature, to go
to school in English,” Lemay said. “That was all new for me. It was a
big, new experience.

“The style is different,” Lemay added. “You get more shots, it’s faster, the guys are bigger so you always have to adjust.”

The
team Lemay had in front of him at Battlefords was less than
accommodating, too. Despite his best efforts, Lemay posted just one win
against 21 losses. His save percentage (.883) was more than respectable
under the circumstances. The North Stars scored just 84 goals in 56
games in 2007-08.

He was a bit better — as was his new team, the
Nipawin Hawks — last season. There, according to available press accounts
(official league statistics were unavailable), Lemay was enjoying an
MVP-caliber season with the Hawks when the Maineiacs came calling.

“I
knew who the team was, because I grew up seeing (former Lewiston
netminders (Jarolav) Halak and (Jonathan) Bernier play,” Lemay said.
“It was kind of awesome, because we had a game New Year’s Eve, and they
said I had to have a good game to have a chance with Lewiston. We were
playing against the best team in Canada. It was a good challenge.”

Lemay suffered an overtime loss, 2-1, while making 45 saves on 47 shots.

“We ended up losing in overtime, but I got the first star,”
Lemay said. “I got the call from the coach after the game, and I was on
my way.”

Immediate impact

Four days later, Lemay was in uniform for the Maineiacs. The opponent?

Quebec, of course.

“I like to play against the team that didn’t give me a chance,” Lemay
said. “It was my first game starting in the ‘Q,’ playing against
Quebec.”

The game turned into a loss for Lemay. He allowed four goals on 28 shots in a 4-2 setback to Roy’s squad at the Colisee Pepsi in Quebec City.

But that loss was Lewiston’s gain. Two weeks later, with a new coach and a new style of play that opened things up a bit, Lemay started to see more shots.

“I was prepared for it,” Lemay said. “My two years in Saskatchewan, we
had a young team and I had over 40 shots almost every game, so I was
used to it. You get better with more shots.”

“If you look at wins and losses, his numbers weren’t good,” Lewiston coach Don MacAdam conceded. “But if you look at save percentage — and that’s the real stat for goaltenders — Adrien never, in any game I’ve seen him play, has been the reason we didn’t have a chance to win. Some nights, he was the only reason we had a chance to win.”

One game in particular stands out. On Feb. 6, Lewiston skated into Drummondville. The Voltigeurs fired 69 pucks at Lemay, while the Maineiacs only managed 16. Yet the Maineiacs nearly stole the game, forcing the home team to earn an overtime victory on a penalty shot.

Leading by example

This year is markedly different, at least so far. During the preseason, Lemay and the Maineiacs averaged 33.7 shots against over six games.

“This year, I can see the difference, getting 30 shots instead of 40, I
still have more energy at the end of the games, too,” Lemay said.

“If we can keep the shots to about 10 each period, and the scoring chances low, Adrien is going to give us a chance to win every night,” MacAdam said. “He has to be a major leader for us,” MacAdam said. “You always say your goaltender has to be your best penalty-killer, and he’ll be our best penalty-killer. Five-on-five, the way he competes, the way he prepares, he’s going to show a lot of leadership just by example. He’s the best-prepared athlete on this team, hands down.”

Lemay said he spends about three days in the gym, working alternately on core muscles, legs and flexibility. But it’s his work ethic, particularly in practice, that’s most impressed the Maineiacs’ staff.

“Talk about an area you can just forget about,” MacAdam said. “He
practices hard. You want one thing that can kill your team? Get a
goalie who doesn’t practice hard. That goalie will single-handedly kill
your team. A goalie like Adrien, who practices hard, will make us
better every day.”

A true goalie?

Many hockey goalies — and goalies in general — are criticized, and in some cases laughed at, for strange quirks or habits. Lemay admits that sometimes, he knows it.

But he’s all right with it.

“I do a lot of visualization before games, I keep to myself a bit,”
Lemay said. “I’ll see myself stopping two-on-ones, breakaways,
one-timers. The guys kind of laugh sometimes, but I’m used to it.”

Other than that, MacAdam said, it’s easy to forget Lemay is even there.

“He’s not a very quirky goalie, honestly,” MacAdam said. “He’s very level-headed, very mature, very intelligent.”

MacAdam paused, then laughed a bit.

“Maybe he’s not a goalie at all,” he said.

Bright future

From Midget AAA to Saskatchewan and back, Lemay has done nothing to indicate he plans on slowing down, and he continues to impress Lewiston’s coaching staff.

“(Going to Saskatchewan) tells me that Adrien will do whatever he needs to do to keep competing and giving himself an opportunity to play,” MacAdam said. “It’s so easy to go back home, find a local Junior A team to play on and call it a day. But he was not prepared to do that, and really hope he gets rewarded down the road for that.

“He’s got the skills, he’s got the ability, and more than anything he has the mental game that’s required,” MacAdam added. 

Lemay, meanwhile, isn’t looking that far ahead. At least, not yet.

“I don’t think about it,” Lemay said. “I don’t like to think about the scouts and the contracts. I want to my junior career on a good note. For me, the best thing is winning a game in overtime, because that’s something you can’t do alone, you have to do it as a team, and that’s the best feeling.

“I want to spend a lot of time with the guys, have fun and be a real family this year,” Lemay said.