Rob Day can’t explain it beyond saying “they’ve been blessed with good genes.”

A.J. Bucchino called it luck. Mike Spillane, on the other hand, didn’t even go that far.

“To be honest with you,” he said, “I don’t think there is an explanation.”

Whatever it is, with Bow natives Ryan Simpson at Providence College, Bucchino at Wisconsin-River Falls, Spillane at the University of Vermont and Matt Courchesne at Southern New Hampshire University, the town has accomplished something few, if any, towns outside of Canada or Minnesota can boast.

Bow’s a goalie gold mine.

Thanks to a solid high school program, quality coaches in the area and opportunities to play far beyond the borders of New Hampshire, there are reasons why a town of roughly 7,000 residents and 28 square miles can produce four quality college netminders in less than five years.

Yet, it’s still what Simpson called “fascinating,” especially when you consider that despite their point of origin, each took slightly different paths to get to their current destinations.

Simpson, a member of the Bow High team as a freshman and at times as a junior, also spent a year at the St. Paul’s School in Concord before embarking on two highly successful years with the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs in the Eastern Junior Hockey League.

There, he earned EJHL Goaltender of the Year honors, and, after pulling his groin in the first period of the championship game, according to goalie coach Day, he remained in net to help lead the Monarchs to a 6-5 win and the title.

“I went to go watch him play against Walpole last year,” said Providence coach Tim Army, “and after the first period of the game, I was convinced.”

Bucchino, born in New York, played two years at the Tilton School, spent another in Des Moines playing in the United States Hockey League – the country’s top junior circuit – stayed for a year at the University of New Hampshire and has since transferred to Division-III Wisconsin- River Falls.

Last season, he earned first-team all-league honors and is off to a 7- 1 start this year.

Spillane and Courchesne spent the most time on the Bow High team – Courchesne all four years and Spillane three – and the two continually battled for the starting job. Spillane ultimately left to play for the EJHL’s Green Mountain Glades his senior year before joining the USHL’s Omaha Lancers, where he was named team MVP in his only season there.

Courchesne spent time with the Exeter Seawolves before passing on his two final years of junior eligibility to join the Penmen. It was a good move, as he took over the starting job by playoff time last season and now is the team’s top goalie as a sophomore.

Besides the town, however, there are connections that help explain all four players’ rise into college hockey.

At one time or another, each worked with Day, the Junior Monarchs’ goalie coach. Simpson has been with Day since 1999. Spillane still works with one of Day’s former students and a former pro goalie, Mike Buckley, who “I owe a lot of my successes to,” Spillane said.

Bucchino said several of them also attended the same camps. “We were all just in the same environment at the same time,” he said.

There’s also the idea that one good goalie begets another.

“In the (state) semifinals my senior year when we lost and Spillane was in net, I didn’t play,” Courchesne said, “but when we were leaving the locker room, Spillane said, ‘You’re the reason. You pushed me day in and day out.’

“And that’s what it was,” he continued. “We forced each other to get better.”

Day could see it. Working with each of them – including another local goalie in Pembroke’s Brian Foster, who’s a freshman at UNH – he said they all already had “good skill bases.”

“But who knows?” Simpson said. “Maybe there’s something in the water.”