East Q&A: Pittman leads Woodbury to surprisingly fast start

It has been a season of surprises thus far for Woodbury's Tony Pittman.

His Royals hockey team is 12-1-1, a record he and primary linemates Max Gaede and Connor Delaney helped establish by combining for 30 goals and 54 assists.

While Pittman admitted the numbers are the stuff of hopes and wishes, he expected success. The Royals, while losing 12 letterwinners to graduation, are two-time Class 2A state tournament participants. Two seasons of strong hockey have raised the level of play and expectations throughout the program.

Pittman is the lone returning senior who started varsity games last season. He entered the week with 12 goals and 20 assists.

"He's a competitive three-sport athlete," coach Wes Bolin said. "Being the only senior coming back it was a natural fit to make him a captain, but his maturity has impressed us."

Pittman spoke with staff writer David La Vaque about the Royals' success, his line's productivity and Thursday's game at Roseville. The Raiders entered the week 8-4-1, but like Woodbury, they are unbeaten in Suburban East Conference play. Puck drops at 7:30 p.m.

Q Were you expecting to be 12-1-1 at this point of the season?

A We definitely didn't expect to be 12-1-1, but we didn't think we were going to lose much. Our junior class has always been really good, and other teams lost a lot of seniors. And we all get along so well as a team. There is no one person who feels left out. We're all playing together and having fun.

Q Do you feel any pressure coming back as the only senior who played varsity last season?

A I knew I was going to have to do this growing up because all my friends in my grade went to private schools. And playing with David [Eddy] last year was good for me because I saw how he controlled the team and what he needed to do to get everyone to play. And we have a lot of good players, so there isn't a lot I need to say.

Q What did you see from David off the ice that helped prepare you to be a captain?

A David wasn't really a vocal leader. He led by example. If you didn't know what to do, you could just watch David. I'm not very vocal either, but coach tells me to be a leader by example and everything will come with that.

Q Coach said you, Gaede and Delaney weren't put on a line until late in the tryouts this year. Has the line's productivity surprised you?

A We just laugh all the time and have fun. We love to score. Max is a really good player, and Connor gets us the puck. And throwing Tyler [Nowicki] in there gives us more to work with. Connor, Max and I are about plus-30 right now, so it's a lot of fun.

Q You guys sure seem to have jelled quickly.

A It was funny, because Max and I played together the whole tryout, and coach kept trying different guys with us. Before our last scrimmage, I told Max, 'Coach should put Connor with us.' We got into the locker room and coach said, 'Connor, hop on Pittman and Gaede's line.' And the first shift we went out and scored. And coach is like, 'Good call by the coach there.'

Q Talk about Thursday's game at Roseville and what you expect.

A They just beat White Bear Lake 2-0, so it shows that every game in our conference is competitive. You look in the paper after games and you see a lot of ties and overtime games. Knowing that makes us concentrate a little more.

It's like coach told us before the Cretin game, 'Whoever wants to win is going to win,' and we came out buzzing.

Q Speaking of Cretin, you got a hat trick. How long since your last one?

A I haven't had a had trick since sophomore year playing junior varsity.

Q So do you have to buy your linemates lunch or anything?

A I have to bring in a drink for the whole team at Monday's practice. And I have to look to set up one of my linemates this week.