JOHNSON'S 35 SET A HIGH GOAL

If David Johnson's hockey game continues to improve like this, then Kansas City, look out.

Johnson, 13, finished the 1995-96 season with a team-high 37 goals for the SEMO Wildcats, a team in the Pee Wee Division of Cape Girardeau's youth hockey league.

In seven years of playing hockey, his 35-goal season was his best so far.

"I had 16 goals last year," he said, "and I just wanted to try and get more than I had last year."

The secret, he said, revolved around practice.

One of 14 players on his team, Johnson said he plays street hockey regularly and practices his sport in his driveway at home in Cape Girardeau.

"I either practice or play street hockey every day," he said. Over time, he said, "my skating's gotten better and my stick-handling's gotten better." Together, the talent helped him boost his team to 11 wins, eight losses and two ties this season.

Maybe not a stellar record, but it's still an improvement.

"It's been the best season we've had," he said.

Johnson, a seventh-grade student at Schultz Middle School, will take his game to a new area -- Kansas City -- when the season resumes in the winter. He's moving there this year.

His geographic move also means a move in his sport -- in Cape Girardeau, Johnson plays at level B of the sport. In Kansas City, he'll move up to level A, a tougher division that isn't offered locally.

"You can go all the way up to AA and AAA in some areas," said Johnson. "There's just level B here.

"There are a lot more teams that play up there. It'll be tough and really competitive.""

Over the past season -- which began in November and ended earlier this month -- Johnson's team competed in two tournaments, one in Little Rock, Ark., and one in Granite City, Ill. The team, which is for players ages 12-13, must play out-of-town teams -- especially from the St. Louis area -- since there are no opponents of that level locally.

Johnson said one of his best games of the season was in the Little Rock tournament.

"We played a team from Memphis and I led the team with four goals," he said. "We won 4-3."

Johnson became involved in the sport at age 6. He's competed now for seven years.

"I saw some people playing hockey at the ice rink and said I wanted to play," he said. "It can be dangerous sometimes, if you get against the boards or get checked. But I've never gotten hurt."

In fact, Johnson said he'd like to continue playing the sport through college.

"I'd like to play college hockey," he said.

And as for a pro career?

"I've gone to the see the Blues play," he said, "and I hope to do that someday."

But hockey isn't his only trade -- Johnson said he's also played in the youth baseball and tackle football program.

But hockey still ranks high.

"Hockey is my favorite sport. I guess the action of it puts it ahead of the rest," he said. "The other ones seem kind of slow compared to that."