“It’s a weird balance and a fine line because yeah this is my last year of junior hockey - and that’s just the way it is - like, you know, this has got to be my best year but I’m also trying to approach it like this going to be my most fun year,” said the goaltender from Alexandria, Minnesota. “It’s a great group of guys, a great organization (in St. Cloud), so as long as I go and play my game and put my best foot forward then I’ll be able to look back and whatever happens I’ll be happy with the outcome.”

The hope is to eventually earn a Division I commitment at some point this season and to be playing on a college hockey team next fall. Liden has had plenty of junior hockey experience so far after spending time in both the Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) and the North American Hockey League (NAHL) but now in his final season of juniors, this is his time to shine and to make some waves in the eyes of both coaches and scouts alike.

Upon taking a closer look at Liden’s journey throughout the sport to get to where he is at today, the 5-foot-11 goaltender has had an interesting, winding road throughout his hockey career thus far.

Despite primarily growing up in Alexandria, the 20-year-old was actually born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and is a dual-citizen in both America and Sweden. Liden’s father is originally from Sweden and originally came to the country as a collegiate swimmer at the University of North Dakota who then went on to attend medical school there as well. His mother also attended UND and was studying aviation when she met his father. The family then eventually moved to Omaha, Nebraska, for a while since Beck’s father did his residency in radiology there and eventually the Liden’s would settle down in Alexandria when Beck was around the age of nine or ten, a place where his mother had family.

With two parents that attended one of the most well-known hockey schools in the country, you’d think that that would possibly have had a bit of influence over the goaltender’s start in playing the game but he jokes that his parents weren’t really into hockey or watching the Fighting Hawks during the time they spent in Grand Forks and they didn’t really know much about hockey in general. Liden remembers trying out many different sports as a kid and he eventually gave hockey a shot and started to enjoy it. After seeing the goalie on his team struggle a bit one day, he thought that maybe he could do a better job if he tried it out himself, and it turns out that it was the perfect fit.

Despite not being big hockey fans, Beck’s parents knew that being a goaltender would be a tough task and they heard it was the worst position to play as well, so if Beck wanted to devote himself to hockey they wanted to make sure that he really wanted to do it and that it wasn’t going to be a temporary interest or hobby. He had to prove himself by doing extra chores, such as mowing the lawn twice a week, but he stuck with it and has now been in the sport ever since.

After competing with the Alexandria Area Hockey Organization as a young athlete for a handful of years, Liden then made the decision to enroll at Northstar Christian Academy, a triple-A program that is located in Alexandria, instead of playing varsity hockey at Alexandria High School.

“What it basically came down to was that I literally just wanted to play more hockey,” he said about his decision to play with the Knights instead of the Cardinals. “I wasn’t very good at the time so trying to make the Tier 1 and Elite League rosters and all the other things that make it so you can play hockey for extra time, I would not have been able to because I just wasn’t good enough yet.”

Liden’s first season with the Knights came during the Covid-19 pandemic season in 2020-21, which made things a bit different compared to usual with increased rules and regulations on youth sports, but he was still able to play a good chunk of games with the team and improve on his skills as a netminder.

“We still played around like 50 games I think that year, there was a lot of guidelines and stuff that we had to follow and do but they were very good about still trying to get us as many games as possible and get us out there,” he said about his first year at Northstar Christian.

“For me, it was a big jump (moving up from Bantam A to 16U AAA), we had a lot of really good kids on our team, guys that are playing Division I now, and just looking back on it that was just insane,” he said about the Northstar team his sophomore year in 2020-21. “I remember how hard I had to work and my goalie partners were both very good so just being able to look up to them and kind of grind that first year out it was an awesome experience but it was definitely a jump.”

As a sophomore, Liden posted a .904 save percentage through about 12 or so triple-A games, along with a couple of games logged in NAPHL 16U and T1EHL 16U contests as well. He then started to earn more minutes in his second 16U season as a junior, this time posting a .929 save percentage through 28 triple-A games and a .941 through 12 regular season NAPHL contests.

As a senior, Liden joined the 18U squad at Northstar Christian and was the primary netminder for the Knights, posting a .925 save percentage and a 1.60 goals-against average through 30 games. This was enough for him to earn a spot playing junior hockey once he graduated from high school.

After graduation, the 5-foot-11 netminder joined the Steinbach Piston of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL). The coaches at Northstar had connections with the coaching staff of the Pistons so it seemed like that would be a good place for Liden to start off his junior hockey career alongside a few other fellow skaters from the Knights program who joined the team as well. He didn’t really know anything about Steinbach or about the MJHL prior to joining the squad but he’s glad that he did because he had a great experience there in 2023-24.

That year, Liden primarily served as the No. 2 goaltender for the Pistons behind Cole Plowman - who went on to play one Division I season at Alaska Fairbanks before winding up in USports at the University of Manitoba - but he still registered a chunk of playing time and posted a solid .936 save percentage through 19 games, which included 17 wins. Plowman served as a good goalie partner for Liden as he was able to show him the ropes of the league and set a good example for how to handle yourself in junior hockey.

After one year up in Manitoba, Liden wasn’t sure what was next for him but everything changed when he got an out of the blue phone call in June of that offseason. While at the gym one day, the Alexandria netminder saw that he was getting a phone call from Joe Exter, one of his former goaltending coaches from way back in the day.

“I didn’t know if he remembered me or not but obviously he did, he called me and I pick up the phone and said ‘Hey Joe, how’s it going?’ and he’s like ‘Hey, just wanted to let you know that I’m gonna be the head coach of the St. Cloud Norsemen and I’m looking forward to you coming and playing for us this year,’ and I’m like ‘Yeah, what do you mean?’ and he’s like ‘Oh, you’re coming and playing for us, don’t worry, I’m gonna make that happen,’ and I was like ‘alright, you know, yeah,’ and that’s pretty much how it went, like word for word,” joked Liden.

That one phone call changed the entire trajectory of his next two seasons of junior hockey, but in a good way of course. Liden was excited to play in St. Cloud, considering it is much closer to home than Steinbach, Manitoba, and he knew it would be exciting to play for Coach Exter and to get to pick his brain a bit on goaltending topics since Exter is a former goaltender himself. The Alexandria native’s family was also excited that they would be able to watch many more of his games in person with the approximately 60/70 mile drive from their home to St. Cloud, compared to a multi-hour car trek up to Steinbach, which is located just southeast of Winnipeg.

It was the first season for Coach Exter on staff with the Norsemen last year in 2024-25, so there was a quite a bit of turnover on the roster. A lot of guys on the previous team the year prior had either aged out of juniors eligibility or went to different teams/programs, which isn’t surprising since there is typically always a large chunk of turnover when new coaches come in. It was a big change for Liden though going from being the No. 2 guy in Steinbach to then stepping into the No. 1 spot in St. Cloud. He wound up playing 41 regular season games and earning a .907 save percentage and a 2.45 goals-against average, which included a over 20 wins and six shutouts.

“I learned a lot, and I think that in and of itself is a success. I went from playing 19 games the whole season (in 2023-24) to playing 20 games like straight game after game for the first month and a half or so and I absolutely loved it,” he said about his first year in the NAHL. “I was learning how to handle that starters job role with the mental and physical side of things, there’s a much bigger load, and how to treat your body too … the Central Division (in the NAHL) is super similar team by team, every game is pretty much a one-goal game, overtime, or shootout, it’s super competitive and there’s a lot of really good guys and good teams so it was a ton of fun - every game is a playoff game pretty much.”

Despite having so many new players on the roster in 2024-25, the Norsemen were still able to finish in fifth place in the NAHL Central Standings and the squad is looking to improve on that this year with a few key returners - such as Liden. In his final year of juniors eligibility, Liden is hoping to play his best hockey yet while also having fun and soaking up the experiences that come with playing in the NAHL as an age-out guy.

“The team chemistry and everything is still working its way together but our team, St. Cloud, is going to be a playoff team this year and we’re going to really push for that,” he said. “We have all the tools we need to be successful it’s just going to come down to executing and just playing our game, which I know we will do.”

In mid-October of 2025, Liden currently owns a .917 save percentage through nine games played with the Norsemen, who stand in fifth place in the Central standings with nine points, which is only three points behind the team in the second-place spot, so there is a definite path for St. Cloud to advance on up if they stay on the right track.

The goal for Liden is to be playing college hockey at this time next season, with hopes of earning a spot at the Division I level. At this moment - the Norsemen are preparing for a home-and-home series with the Minnesota Mallards on Oct. 17 and 18, followed by another home-and-home series with the North Iowa Bulls the weekend after that.