ST. IGNATIUS - He's called the Mad Hatter.

ST. IGNATIUS - He's called the Mad Hatter.

Hunter Cordier may be the only kid in Mission who plays hockey, but he's certainly done well representing the town. After all, how many 10-year-old goalies do you know with a nickname?

"One of the parents called me the Mad Hatter because I was stopping a lot of pucks," Cordier said. "And in town, I'm called Hockey Puck."

Cordier started playing hockey at a young age, and now has five years of the sport under his belt, constantly making the trip down south to play in the Missoula Area Youth Hockey Association. His love for hockey started when he saw the pros lace up their skates.

"Nobody in the house watched hockey," his father, Scott, said. "But when he saw it once on TV, he said he wanted to play."

And the Mad Hatter was born.

Cordier isn't a one-trick pony though. After three years of playing for a mite travel team and two years on a house squirt team, he's made quite the name for himself and played several different positions, including wing.

"He's kind of played them all through the years," Scott said. "He's the smart player, he's not going for the puck, he's going where the puck is going to be. He understood the

game right away."

And his favorite part of the game?

"He likes the roughness of it," Scott said. "When he ends up in the penalty box, he's got a smile on his face."

Cordier said the first time he was sent to the penalty box in the second year of playing hockey he thought he had done something wrong. However, being a hockey player, that feeling quickly dissipated.

"I kind of got use to it as I got older," he said.

In 2008, Cordier got the treat of watching the WHL finals in Lethbridge, Canada as the Spokane Chiefs took on the Lethbridge Hurricanes for the championship. Cordier's choice of seating? Right by the penalty box.

"He enjoyed that a lot," his father said.

Cordier loved the opportunity to watch high-level junior hockey, with a lot of the players on both teams on the verge of making the NHL.

"I hope to be able to say someday that I saw these guys in

the NHL play," Cordier said.

When he's not watching hockey, he's playing it. Cordier will go outside of his house in Mission and shoot between two cones when he gets the chance. It's all practice that only serves to make him a better hockey player.

Cordier gets the rare opportunity to be outside and inside of the hockey goal.

When he's between the posts as a goalie, his favorite part is being in crunch situations.

"It kind of scares me when they go on a break, that's kind of a nervous spot," he said. "But you're the last line of defense. You're the last one to stop the puck."

Being able to play goalie doesn't come easy, though.

The Cordiers put out a considerable amount of money traveling down to Missoula three times a week and then to tournaments on the weekend.

"Hockey is an expensive sport, " Scott said. "Goalie gear is not cheap."

While they were able to find second-hand goalie gear for the aspiring net-minder, the Cordiers still have fees for ice time, hotels and then playing fees for tournaments to pay. However, it's all worth it being a part of the hockey community in Missoula.

"We're still close with the parents on the travel teams. We never have the ‘my kid is better than your kid' thing," Scott said. "The kids come from everywhere to Missoula. That's the place to play. It's grown by leaps and bounds."

Hockey, more than any other sport, seems to bring out the camaraderie among teammates and that's something that's different a big draw for Hunter. His father feels like the sport could also be a big hit in the Mission Valley.

"I wish they would get the sport up here," he said.

With travel up to Canada, throughout the state of Montana and down to the Idaho hockey capital of Salmon, the miles add up quickly. However, when a kid like Hunter loves a sport, it certainly pays off.

"I love being out on the ice, it only comes one season out of the year," Hunter said.

His favorite player? Team USA hero of the Olympics and Buffalo Sabres goalie, Ryan Miller.

"I really want to make it to the NHL and be one of the star goalies," Hunter said.

If that happens, instead of watching the pros, the Mad Hatter could be inspiring young kids to lace up the skates and get out on the ice, just like he did.