SOUTH HAMILTON - While daydreaming in his high school chemistry class, hockey goaltender Trevor Leahy began to think about the opposing forwards who buzz around him when Pingree School hits the ice.

What are they looking for, he asked himself.

Open net.

But why does he wear dark blue pads that let shooters zero in on a target?

Using computer skills he learned in a graphic design class at the private school in South Hamilton, Leahy sketched out new leg pads that blend into the goal netting behind him. He wanted pads, a trapper, and a blocker that are white with a raised double-stitched design, just like the goal. He applied for a design patent and had them custom-made by a Canada-based pad maker.

"When the shooter comes down and only has a split second to shoot the puck, they're looking for net," said Leahy, a senior from Hampton, N.H., who grew up in Byfield. "If you put the net on the pad, they'll shoot at the pad instead of the goal."

Since the days when Boston Bruins' goaltender Gerry Cheevers started inking stitches onto his mask each time the equipment protected his face, many goalies have expressed their individuality with designs and paintings on their mask or other pieces of equipment. But Leahy's design - essentially a camouflage for a goal that is 4 feet high and 6 feet wide - has hockey players and coaches amazed and impressed.

Darren Stomp, the custom pad maker from Kingsville, Ontario, who designed Leahy's equipment, has had other goaltenders ask him to add orange and black tiger stripes and other designs. But those changes were cosmetic. "It might be the most clever idea," Stomp said. "I don't think there's any question it will work, although to what degree depends on the shooter and the situation."

So far, Leahy has logged two shutouts with the pads. In practice, two of Pingree's top scorers say, the illusion is particularly effective when there's a scramble in front of the net and they need to shoot quickly.

"When you're in close and you don't have a lot of time to think, it does catch your eye, and you do shoot toward it sometimes," said Matt MacDonald, a cocaptain from Byfield.

Both MacDonald and senior Tony Sardo of Gloucester say they have fired the puck directly into Leahy's pads. The illusion diminishes if they are farther from the net, with more time to shoot.

"I've never seen anything like them," Sardo said of the pads.

Not everyone is as sold on the theory. In the locker room after a recent 4-3 overtime loss, players from Dexter School of Brookline said that they barely noticed the design on the pads and that it didn't attract their attention - or their shots.