YOUNG HOCKEY PLAYER KEEPS GAME IN FAMILY; YOUTH HOPES TO BECOME A PRO

Justin Crader has a flair for hockey, and it's one that's existed before on a professional level in his family.

Former Blues hockey player John Wensink of St. Charles is married to a third cousin of the Jackson boy, said Justin's father, Stan Crader, president of the SEMO Youth Hockey Association. Wensick, now coach of the Blues' Peewee team, has skated a path Justin would like to follow.

Wensick said he played with the Blues for three years in the 1970s. Then he played for the Boston Bruins for four years before going on to the Quebec Nordiques, the now-defunct Denver Rockies, and the New Jersey Devils.

"I've been wanting to play professionally," Justin, 11, said after a practice with his team at The Ice in Cape Girardeau's Plaza Galleria. "I took skating lessons when I was about 5.

"I was playing soccer, but I quit playing soccer about a year ago 'cause it was getting mixed up with hockey."

He likes hockey more than soccer, he said, because he's better at it. This hockey season is Justin's fourth.

Each Sunday and Tuesday Justin practices at The Ice with the Squirts category of the Wildcats, on which he plays center or right wing. His father is an assistant coach with the squirts.

Sometimes on weekends, Justin said, his team comprised of about 15 or 16 youths travels to St. Louis for games or hosts St. Louis teams in Cape Girardeau.

The team was 4-1 this season as of Feb. 8. The season started in December and usually concludes around the end of March, Justin said. Last season the team, which also has previously traveled to Memphis, Tenn., and Indianapolis, Ind., won only one of about 15 games, he said.

Team members of the Squirts are 10 and 11 years old. There are also the Mites, 9 years of age and under; Peewees, 12 and 13; and Bantams, 14 and 15. A younger brother of Justin's, Scott, 8, also plays hockey.

As of Feb. 8, Justin said he had scored nine goals, including three, known as a "hat trick," in his first game of the season.

Justin's passion with hockey shows up in the clothes he wears, the television he watches, and the way he likes to spend his free time. While being interviewed, he sported a Los Angeles Kings baseball cap with black and silver tiger-like stripes. He also has a Blues jersey and T-shirts of the Bruins and Kings, he said.

"I watch (college) hockey almost every night on Channel 31." And after the action stops, there's always his hockey cards; Justin estimated he has about 400 cards.

When he gets any free time, Justin said, he likes to spend it playing street hockey on his Rollerblades outside his home. Usually, he said, he and his father play against each other.

Justin said he has also visited the Blues locker room, where he talked with and got the signatures of Blues stars including Brett Hull, coach Brian Sutter and Paul Cavallini. He was able to get into the locker room last year with the help of his cousin, who went to a game with Justin and his dad and some other people.

He said he has six Blues' signatures. "I don't have all of them because some of them were in the shower," he said.

"I didn't get to talk to them that long. I just told them they played a good game.

"I thought it was fun 'cause they showed us where they keep all their sticks and stuff. It's this big huge room that had about seven sticks per person. I only have three."

Hull's signature is his favorite, he said. Hull, he said, just might be the best player of all time.

The hardest part about playing hockey is some of the drills that are done, Justin said. "You get these bruises on your knees whenever we have to go to the blue line and have to go down on both knees and get back up."

The best part, though, is scoring, he said.

"It feels good like after you score one goal, you feel like you can score another one. You ... can't wait 'till you get another chance 'till you get back on (the ice) 'cause usually you score and then you have to get off and the next line gets to come on."

A mother of one of his team's players pays 25 cents a goal, Justin said.

"I don't get paid anymore 'cause last year I scored a hat trick and my mom paid me $10. She paid me $2 a goal after that, and she doesn't pay me anymore. She said she'd probably go broke." His mother is Deborah Crader.

Justin says the advice he'd give someone who was wanting to start playing hockey is "to wear a lot of equipment and you probably wouldn't get hurt."

"I'd tell him to take beginner lessons first before you play hockey," he said.