Inside the Locker Room Tom Maldonado drops his gloves and talks to The Campus

Author: Brooke Farquhar

Tom Maldonado '08 could be called the Cal Ripken, Jr. of the Men's Hockey team. Although he wears a white no. 2 and not a black no. 8, with 84 consecutive starts, Maldonado's record is hot and shows no signs of dwindling. In the 24 games played so far this season, Maldonado assisted 22 goals and holds the second highest number of points on the team with 23.

When not playing hockey, Maldonado is studying psychology, cleaning his room or rocking out to David Lee Murphy's "Dust on the Bottle." Goalies Doug Radeder '09 and Ross Cherry '08 have plenty of dust on their waterbottles as a result of Maldo's solid defensive play.

The junior out of the Taft School in Watertown, Conn. has acquired quite a following since beginning his college career. Ask anyone in Middlebury who no. 2 is on the men's hockey team, and they'll tell you, "Maldonado." The same goes for no. 23 Rob MacIntyre '08 and no. 10 Mickey Gilchrist '08. At Kenyon these guys are familiar to everyone, but how well do they know each other?

As both teammates and roommates of Maldonado, MacIntyre and Gilchrist share an equally personal relationship, both on the ice and in their Atwater suite. MacIntyre has the advantage of playing side by side with Maldonado on the defensive line, but will the combination of his knowledge of Maldonado and his defensive skills be able to hold off Gilchrist?


Gilchrist slid by MacIntyre in a narrow 3-2 win. It appears that MacIntyre's edge of knowing Maldonado as a fellow defenseman did not detain Gilchrist from the win. Gilchrist's time on the power-play with Maldonado seems to have been well spent.

While Gilchrist knew Maldonado's favorite class so far at Middlebury was Beginning Acting, neither he nor MacIntyre matched Maldonado's answer of who would play him if his life were made into a movie. And Mickey did not know his Disney, as least when it comes to Maldo's preference of Aladdin. Both Gilchrist and MacIntyre underestimated Maldonado's love for hockey, responding that Maldonado's favorite summer sport was softball. Maldonado answered, "Does summer hockey count?"

When asked how many minutes before morning practice he wakes up, Maldonado overwhelmed Gilchrist and MacIntyre's answers of 60 and 30 minutes, respectively, with a whopping 90 minutes. Does this man ever sleep? As reflected in his record of consecutive starts, certainly not through games.

Saturday at 4 p.m. Maldonado, MacIntyre and Gilchrist will lead the no. 2 Panthers against no. 7 Williams in the NESCAC quarterfinal.