Mar. 5—It's later in the evening. The Bemidji State men's hockey team's practice has concluded. Players have retreated to their homes or dorm rooms. Tory Lund can be found in a familiar setting.
The Beavers' sophomore forward has one of the busiest schedules of any student-athlete at BSU. He's in classes all morning during the week, then heads to the Sanford Center for practices. He squeezes in a weight-lifting session and makes time for film study.
When it's done, he heads back to the classroom or to a desk for his biochemistry and medical biology studies, which are among the most demanding majors offered at Bemidji State.
However, in his limited free time, Lund can be found on a different kind of bench at BSU, one with 88 keys and a YouTube tutorial playing on his propped-up phone in front of him.
Growing up in Sartell, Lund's mom, Megan, put him and his two older brothers in piano lessons.
"I hated it," he said with a laugh. "I just hated it, so I stopped playing."
He quit around sixth or seventh grade, then picked it back up while playing in the North American Hockey League in El Paso, Texas.
"I just had so much free time on my hands," Lund recalled. "I wasn't doing school. I was just practicing. I'd go back to my billet house and I'd have nothing to do."
His billet family had a piano. Lund's "boredom" ultimately rekindled an old requirement and turned it into a new hobby. He pieced together what he remembered from his old piano lessons, filling in the gaps through YouTube tutorials.
His way of killing time became somewhat of an obsession.
"It's so much work to put together a piece," Lund said. "I love seeing that final product. I love the feeling of being able to play through a song cleanly. It makes the grind of playing the same notes over and over again worth it. You play until you have muscle memory, and then you play it from memory."
He started recording himself playing the songs he learned from memory. By July 2024, his camera roll was filled with his piano covers of songs he mastered without sheet music. He started posting them on a separate Instagram account,
@tdl.piano,
with a simplistic bio: "Tracking songs that I've learned and progress on new songs."
Lund doesn't know what compelled him to put his covers on Instagram, and he's not trying to become a viral piano player. Instead, he is just being his authentic self.
Lund is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to choosing his next cover.
"I'll go through what feels like a million songs," he said. "I hate just playing a melody. ... Anybody can play any song just by playing the melody, so in the YouTube videos, I look for more chords with single notes. It sounds better and it's more of a challenge."
Lund has dabbled in movie scores. He learned "Mia and Seb's Theme" from "La La Land."
"I love that movie," he exclaimed before saying his next project is "Shallow" from "A Star is Born."
"If I really like a movie, then I'll like a song that's in the movie. 'La La Land' has two of them — 'City of Stars' and 'Mia and Seb's Theme' — and those are really good. Those are really fun and two of my favorites, for sure."
His first posted cover was of "Sad" by Maroon 5 on July 22, 2024, less than a month before he reported to Bemidji State's preseason men's hockey camp for his freshman season. He then posted a cover of Tom Odell's "Another Love" a week later, followed by Billy Joel's "Vienna."
"When I learn a song all the way through and can play it by memory, I get kind of bored with it," Lund said. "So then I stop playing it and end up forgetting it, but I want to remember all these songs I've learned."
He didn't have any trepidation about posting his covers on a public account. He doesn't care if people like them or even watch them. It's just something he wanted to do, so he does it.
"I think it's important to be authentic and be yourself," he said. "You should take pride in who you are."
Among the few dozen followers, many of them are current and former teammates.
"Especially here, this is such a community," Lund added. "I know that's said a lot and it's cliché, but we're not a big university in a big city where people have that big-city mentality of trying to all fit in. Everybody can be themselves here, and I really appreciate that about this place."
Especially for Lund, he needs "everybody" around him to pursue his passions away from the ice.
The majority of BSU men's hockey players study business. When Lund told his professors and coaches he wanted to study biochemistry and medical biology, it was — and still is, on occasion — met with skepticism.
"I have to do a lot of talking to professors about how to make it work," Lund said. "I have analytical chemistry labs that are scheduled from 2 to 5 p.m. on Thursdays. Well, I have practice at 1:30, and that goes until at least 3, and that's only when we're at home. I'm showing up an hour and a half late to lab each week."
When the Beavers hit the road, Lund can't make any of his late-week labs.
"The professors here are phenomenal," Lund said. "It's not the easiest thing to make up for my professors because somebody has to be there to supervise me. They help an extreme amount in giving me all the tools I need to succeed, despite my very, very tight schedule."
While it's more common in other divisions, D-I student-athletes majoring in biochemistry and medical studies are extremely rare. Associate coach Travis Winter said he couldn't recall a BSU men's hockey player who majored in biochemistry, but others like goaltender Reid Mimmack, who played for the Beavers from 2012-17, took the pre-med route.
But Lund is keen on preparing for life after hockey. He wants to attend medical school or study to become a physician's assistant, opting to get a master's degree instead of a Ph.D.
"It's a lengthy goal," Lund said with a laugh, "but I kind of like that challenge.
"My parents both work in health care. I've had that interest, and they've helped me out, too. I just really don't want to sit at a desk, and I have a passion for medicine and human anatomy. I find it really interesting how we're all put together."
Lund's work ethic on and off the ice doesn't go unnoticed. He's a 2025-26 CCHA Scholar-Athlete and was named to the CCHA All-Academic Team.
"He's a great kid. Heck of a student, heck of a kid," BSU coach Tom Serratore said. "He just does everything the right way. He's coachable, he competes, he works and he has all of those attributes you want in a player."
Winter and Serratore saw these qualities early on, which is why they fast-tracked his recruiting process.
After graduating from Sartell High School in 2022, Lund played his first season in the NAHL in Minot. After recording 11 points in 36 games, he was traded to El Paso. He finished the 2022-23 season with the Rhinos, playing in 21 games and scoring two goals and nine assists.
He had a breakout second season with 48 points in 60 games, leading El Paso to the playoffs. Still, he didn't have any concrete interest from collegiate programs and returned home to Sartell in the summer.
When Bemidji State had a roster spot open up in June 2024, Lund got a text saying the Beavers were interested in adding him to their roster for the fall.
"From what I remember, everything felt like a no-brainer," Lund said. "It all happened super fast, like, crazy fast. I was just so excited because I was playing in El Paso and there wasn't a lot of recruiting going on."
Winter reached out to Lund to see if he'd be interested in making an official visit.
"I dropped everything on my calendar and came up four or five days after I got that text," Lund continued. "I fell in love with it right away."
When his BSU tour concluded, Lund made the two-and-a-half-hour drive back to Sartell. His mind was made up.
"They offered on the visit, and I accepted when I got home," he said. "It was very quick, but that doesn't matter. I'm very grateful for every opportunity I'm given here."
While recruits often play Division I out of the NAHL, their recruiting processes rarely play out as quickly as Lund's. He said it gave him confidence to join the Beavers right away instead of going back to El Paso for one more season.
"We needed a player," Serratore said. "We looked at Tory, we liked Tory and we liked his game. We felt his game would transfer. A lot of that is because of the way he plays, but he's also physically strong. When you're physically strong and have the proper mindset, it goes hand in hand."
Lund wasn't expected to be a big-time impact forward as a rookie. He skated in just eight games and recorded three assists as he developed his game to the collegiate level.
"I think that led to a tough freshman year in terms of getting into the lineup," Lund said. "I couldn't go into my bag of tricks like I could in juniors. But practicing every day and lifting weights, developing myself both mentally and physically, it was ultimately a good thing for me."
As his sophomore season winds down, Lund has become a dependable fixture in BSU's lineup. The 5-foot-11, left-shot winger scored four goals this season and averages nearly 12 minutes of time on ice per game.
"He plays with hardness," Serratore said. "He's got sandpaper. He's got grit. When you have that, you can play. He's a Beaver, and he plays honest. It's showing right now. Once you see those types of things, there's a trust factor. You're not afraid to throw him over the board more and more."
Lund said he's far from being a complete player yet, noting there are several areas of his game he wants to see personal improvement in ahead of his junior season while living up to his standard of self-perfection. But he also has an uncanny ability to take his unique college experience in stride.
"It's been an absolutely jam-packed two years," Lund said. "Lots of ups and downs, both personally and team-wise, but that's kind of what you love about it, right? I mean, if everything were easy, everyone would do it. It's really nice to go through the ups and downs with your teammates. It's really been a pleasure to be able to say I'm a Beaver."
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