LEWISTON — They thrive in relative obscurity.

The first spoke in the offensive wheel, and the penultimate piece of prevention, the Lewiston High School defensive corps — all seven of its members — are often overshadowed.

Cam Poussard and his gaudy, possibly-unequaled goaltending statistics dominate defensive talk.

Perhaps the top offensive line in more than a decade to skate in Class A high school hockey racks up goals, points and accolades at an alarming rate.

And in the middle: Three seniors, three juniors and a freshman, charged with keeping shots from the former, and feeding the latter.

“All seven of them, they have a lot of experience,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “When I first came to this program, the first thing we talked about was defense. I still believe that defense gives you a chance to win, and defense on top of goaltending creates a good offense.”

And how.

Through the regular season and two playoff games, Lewiston has scored more than 110 goals while allowing only 15.

“The lion’s share of the time, it’s the defensemen working to get the puck out of the zone that start the offense,” Belleau said. “We’ve had the most success as a team when our defense moves the puck well up the ice.”

Part of the Blue Devils’ ability to move the puck so well up the ice stems from having confidence that, if they do make a mistake, they have an all-state goaltender to back them up.

“We have a really good relationship with each other,” Lewiston defender Scott Ouellette said. “He’s a great goalie. We work with him, he works with us, and if he gets the numbers on the stat sheets, that’s OK with us, because we know we helped out, too.”

Equally as impressive is the praise Poussard returns to his defensemen.

“I’d be nowhere without them,” Poussard said matter-of-factly. “They’ve done such a great job of keeping everything to the outside. They clear the front really well, make sure I can see everything. People talk about, ‘Oh, Cam has this many shutouts,’ but what it boils down to is I wouldn’t have that many shutouts or even wins without my defense.”

And like any well-oiled set of gears, each moving part has its purpose, or, in this case, a role.

“Cody Dussault and Scott Ouellette have been part of the defensive backbone of this program the past four years,” Belleau said. “And we’ve had success because of that. But you can’t overlook the contributions to the program of someone like Zach Parker, who is a senior and moved from forward to defense to help fill a role for us. He’s done a great job, to help complement the work the other guys have done, and he’s done a very good job there.”

Parker’s transition to defense wasn’t the easiest thing he’s ever done. But for the betterment of the squad, it was something he was more than willing to do.

“This summer, I talked with Coach a lot, and he knew we were going to need some defense,” Parker said. “I had played when I was younger, defense, until bantams. He told me they were going to give me a shot at defense, and I said, ‘Hey, wherever you need me.’ It ended up working out.”

Ouellette and Dussault, meanwhile, continued to improve upon what they’ve done for four years.

“I started as a freshman, looking up at all of the rest of the guys, watching how they played,” Ouellette said. “With a little bit of a chip on their shoulder. A bunch of us scored some goals this season, but once the playoffs started, we really focus on the defense. I kind of feel like I can play a little bit harder each game than I did before, and just keep chipping away. I don’t really care if I get a bunch of goals or anything. I play in the defensive zone, get the puck and put it into the hands of the guys who can score.”

The junior class is equally impressive, not necessarily in pure stature or even statistically, but in the players’ ability to learn and grow. Matt Melanson leads that group. A promising player as a freshman, Melanson lost a season due to an injury. But that hasn’t appeared to slow him this season.

“I had other sports and other activities to help me get back into shape,” Melanson said. “It was a while before I was comfortable again.”

His return to the lineup to begin the season began a steady upward progression.

“Matt played probably one of the best games he’s played all year against St. Dom’s,” Belleau said. “And Brandon Tiner is often overlooked. He moves the puck well and usually makes a really good first pass. He makes mistakes, they all do, but the five of them, have really been solid for our defensive corps.”

Even beyond the team’s top five are Jake Bergeron, a junior, and the squad’s lone freshman defender, Patrick Deblois.

“For the most part, at this point in time, if someone gets over-tired or bumped or something, we’ll take a shift from them,” Bergeron said. “For now, my role is basically to provide a break for someone who needs it. It’s not as big as, starting or going out every other shift, but I still feel it’s important. Like Coach always says, one bad shift can cost a game. I still have to be ready to play to that level. It’s just as important.”

“It’s exciting to be on the team,” Deblois said. “Sometimes you want to play more than other times, but like we hear a lot, you can never take a shift off, and you always have to be ready on the bench. We’re there when they need us.”

The Blue Devils, with seven defensemen in uniform in front of the best statistical goaltender in at least 20 years and a potent offense for those defensemen to feed, will skate Saturday for the Class A state hockey title, a championship that has eluded the program since 2002.

“When you talk about depth, we’re dressing seven defensemen every single game,” Belleau said. It’s nice to have all of them have strengths that might be different than the others. We’ve been fortunate. I think they’ve all done well playing defensively. We talk about moving our feet is what you need to play good defense, we talk about playing from the inside out. These kids have heard all of that for three years now, they’ve adapted to it and they’ve succeeded at it. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the success of all of our defensemen.”