Lleyton Roed was the top-scoring freshman in the CCHA last season, notching 31 points (13 goals and 18 assists).
It was about as good a debut for any Bemidji State player ever. The last freshman to lead the Beavers in scoring was Matt Read, who scored 27 points in 2007-08 and remains the team’s Division I career scoring leader.
So expectations were high for Roed coming into his sophomore season–himself more than anyone. The White Bear Lake, Minn., native said he’d never been more excited to come into a season in his hockey-playing career.
“After having success last year, I came in very confident. It’s probably the most excited I’ve been for a season,” he said. “I knew what to expect with our guys, we had a great group back here and just coming back with that comfortability, with a lot of playing opportunity. I was excited to get a fresh season going. Last season didn’t end how we wanted to, so we’re trying to build off that and have some more success this year.”
The 5-foot-11 winger has, accordingly, picked up right where he left off last year. Six games into the season, Roed has scored six goals. That averages out to a goal per game, although the average doesn’t quite line up with actual reality. He was held off the scoresheet in BSU’s 4-0 shutout loss at the hands of Minnesota Duluth Oct. 20, but made up for it by scoring both goals in the Beavers’ 2-0 victory over St. Thomas on Saturday night in Bemidji.
“I think the best way to go about it is not to think about it at all,” Roed said of his impressive start to the season. “Whether you’re scoring or not scoring, either way, let your game do the talking. If you deserve it, they’re going to go in. You’re going to go through some rough patches but you’re also going to have some great weekends, like last weekend, so I think it’s just about keeping an even-keeled mindset.”
Whatever way Roed likes to think about it, the goals are coming. Last weekend, BSU swept St. Thomas, 3-2 and 2-0. Roed scored three of those five goals, and all of those scores involved the two things Roed said he improved most over the offseason: puck possession and decision-making.
“Guys at this level are a lot faster and stronger, so that’s something I worked on a lot over the summer, is possessing the puck and using my feet,” he said. “I’ve been putting myself in good situations, so that’s been good.”
On Friday’s game–a 3-2 BSU win–Roed scored on the power play, receiving a pass from freshman Liam Engstrom at the goal line then skating all the way around the right circle before entering the high slot and beating the Tommies goalie with a pinpoint wrist shot.
Then, on Saturday, he managed to score again from the high slot, this time taking a pass from Eric Pohlkamp at the red line in a 2-on-1 situation. As he was coming in to score in the right circle, he deked out the UST defender before cutting to his left, skating towards the slot and scoring from the other circle. The third goal he scored on the weekend was an empty-netter to finish off the Tommies late in the third – not as impressive technically, but the end result was the same – two victories and six conference points for the Beavers, who are now 3-3-0 and 2-0-0 in the conference.
“Last weekend was huge,” Roed said. “It’s really important to get a head start in the conference, it’s a lot easier to be ahead early than to be chasing in the conference late in the season. So we’re going to look back on that later this season and see that as a big result, especially with how well the [the Tommies] are playing this year.”
Although they are leading the conference with an extremely small sample size, Roed said the Beavers know the month of November is especially important. This week, they travel to the Soo to take on a Lake Superior State team coming off two hard-fought wins against Clarkson and St. Lawrence. Then they host Michigan Tech before back-to-back road series against Minnesota State and North Dakota.
“It’s a really important month,” he said. “Getting that first sweep last weekend was huge, because we know these next few weekends are going to be tough. We have Lake State; they have some guys who can put the puck in the net this year and they always play stingy. Then we have Tech at home, which is a huge series for us, then traveling to Mankato, which is never easy. But we’ll be ready for it.
“We want to see ourselves as a top team in the conference. That’s one thing we’re shooting for. A big thing in the playoffs for this league is to get home ice. We want to check that off and get as high a seed as possible, so we want to make sure we get off to a good start [in November].”
