It wasn’t easy at first.

Sophie Goulet could have been discouraged early in her high school hockey career. High School girls’ hockey in Maine was still at the club level when Goulet first stepped foot onto the St. Dominic Academy campus.

“I saw the team when I was younger, and I knew I wanted to play for them when I got to the high school level,” Goulet said in an interview earlier this past season. “I never got frustrated with the team, I never thought it was a mistake to come here.”

One year later, the Maine Principals’ Association sanctioned the sport. A traditional power when the sport was at the club level, the Saints took a brief tumble through the standings. Their one constant? Goulet.

Playing defense, the shifty and highly-skilled skater was a big part of the team at both ends of the ice while St. Dom’s broke in a new goalie, a new coach and acclimated the rest of the players to skating at a new level.

All the while, Goulet also plied her trade on one of Maine’s top girls’ hockey travel teams, the Lady Breakers, a U-19 squad out of Biddeford.

There, she also excelled, traveling to the national Tier II tourney with that team after he sophomore season at St. Dom’s with a handful of girls two and three years older than her.

Slowly, the Saints began to right the ship, thanks in large part to Goulet’s play. As she matured into her role, the Saints got stronger around her.

By her senior season, transfer students Marisa Zamrock and Lauren Ratsep joined Goulet to form a nearly unstoppable trio. The added offensive force from Zamrock and Ratsep allowed Goulet to return to her roots, and focus more on defense.

The move served her — and the Saints — well.

“With everyone on the team having and knowing their individual roles, we’ve come together and know what we have to do,” Goulet said prior to the Saints’ appearance in this season state final, a game St. Dom’s won, returning the school to the pinnacle of the sport they dominated for better than a decade.

“She really evolved into a great team player,” St. Dom’s coach Don Boucher said. “She bonded well with the other top players on the team and you can just see how competitive she is.”

Having played a large role in helping the Saints return to the top, having been the catalyst for a deep and talented team, and for her continued success year in and year out, Goulet is the 2010-11 Sun Journal Girls’ Ice Hockey Player of the Year.

Holly Gallup F EL/Leavitt

Taylor Landry F EL/Leavitt

Sara Marden F Lewiston

Kayla McLellan F St. Dom’s

Lauren Ratsep F St. Dom’s

Marisa Zamrock F St. Dom’s

Sophie Goulet D St. Dom’s

Lauren Lessard D Lewiston

Lydia Martin D St. Dom’s

Shelbea Russell D EL/Leavitt

Nicole Keaney G St. Dom’s

Brianna Stanley G EL/Leavitt