Augusta Lynx captain Louis Goulet doesn't talk about hockey like it's a sport. It's more like a friend.

"Hockey's been good to me," he said. "Hockey's given me an education. Hockey's given me a wife. I've met some great people through hockey."

There's very little space on the time line of Goulet's life where hockey isn't present. From his childhood days in Kapuskasing, Ontario, where he learned the sport, to becoming the all-time leading points scorer for the Lynx, Goulet and hockey have been nearly inseparable.

Goulet soon will add another hockey milestone. He enters tonight's home game against the Texas Wildcatters in need of one goal to tie the Lynx's all-time goal-scoring record. Former Lynx forward Jonas Soling owns the current mark with 90 goals. Goulet, who has 89 goals in just under four years with the Lynx, will soon overtake him.

"I'm really not thinking about it at all," Goulet said. "It's a personal achievement. Personal achievements are great, but the team achievements are what I look for. I'd give up any personal achievement for a championship."

In a society where athletes work, sacrifice and bend the rules to reach individual milestones, Goulet is different. The record doesn't even come close to the top of his priority list.

"He cares about the Augusta Lynx first," head coach Bob Ferguson said. "He plays for the logo on the front. That's the ultimate compliment. At this level you've got a lot of guys playing for the name on the back. Not him."

While the team ranks higher than the scoring record, neither was in the front of Goulet's mind last Wednesday. The lifelong hockey player took his mind off the ice completely, at least for one afternoon.

A HOCKEY FAMILY

Goulet couldn't help but let a smile creep across his face after Thursday's practice. He wasn't talking about hockey.

"We're about to have our first baby," he said. "We went in yesterday to find out if it's a boy or a girl, but it didn't want to show us anything, so we'll have to wait another four weeks."

Goulet will become a father for the first time this summer. He and his wife, Jamie, have been married for a year and a half, and they're beginning to build a family together.

It's not a distraction from hockey. Actually, hockey had a hand in it.

"My wife's sister worked for the team, and that's how we met," Goulet said. "She was in Charlotte then, but my first year here she spent the summer here. The rest is history."

The couple got engaged in Wales, where Goulet spent the 2005-06 season playing for the Cardiff Devils. After a small wedding in the Turks & Caicos Islands, Goulet returned to the Lynx.

"The fans have been pretty good to me here," he said. "Any place where you get a chance to play the game you love and get paid for it is great. It's all pretty fun."

AGING GRACEFULLY

The record, the growing family, his 30th birthday looming in the fall. They're all reasons the word "retirement" has popped up along with Goulet's name recently. At 29, odds are he has much more than half his life to live.

But in the ECHL he's an old timer, a veteran.

"I don't think there's any one day that makes you too old to play," Ferguson said. "It probably comes down to where your priorities are. Every hockey player has to sit down and eventually make that decision."

It's something Goulet said he has tossed around in the back of his mind.

"Right now I'm just taking it year by year. After hockey season's over I'll sit down with my wife, and we'll see," he said. "I'm no spring chicken."

On the Lynx's current 19-man roster, Goulet is the only player born in the 1970s. He's older than any of his teammates by at least two years, but his production this season hasn't show any signs of slowing. He leads the Lynx in assists and points scored.

On a roster with as many as five first-year forwards, Ferguson said Goulet's experience has been extremely valuable.

"There's been many nights this year where he's the only non-rookie forward we've dressed," Ferguson said. "To be a captain of a young team like this makes it even tougher."

Those younger Lynx forwards, including rookies Bobby Bolt and Matt Auffrey, have known the Lynx captain for less than a year, but both players said they've benefitted from his advice.

"He's been a great help to me," Bolt said. "He'll tell you where you need to go or what you need to do out on the ice. He's kind of a quiet guy off the ice, but he's a great leader when he's out there."

Auffrey added, "He's helping us especially on defense. We're offensive guys, and we're still learning defense.

"When I first came in, I didn't know much about anyone on the team, but you could tell he's the leader."

THE NEED TO LEAD

Goulet's leadership has helped the Lynx this season, but it hasn't exactly been a year of perfection. The Lynx have fallen to seventh place in the ECHL's South Division standings and enter tonight's contest on a three-game losing streak.

It would be a perfect time for Goulet to score the goals he needs to break the record. The Lynx need it more than ever.

"We're looking for some offense," Ferguson said. "That's our biggest need right now."

The Lynx have faced tonight's foe, Texas, twice this season. Goulet had four assists but no goals in those games. He said there's no extra pressure to score because of the record.

The sport has given him a wife, a career, an education and a fan base. With all that going for him, who can keep up with a measly goal-scoring record?

"I wouldn't have known about it if they hadn't said anything on the radio show a few weeks ago," he said.

"If you play hockey long enough, I guess the record's going to happen at some point."