When Dax Burkhart '96 took a feed from Dion Del Monte '95 and scored last Friday night against St. Lawrence, Del Monte achieved a milestone that had only been reached by 25 others in the history of Dartmouth hockey; he reached the 100 point mark for his career.
But forget the fact that Del Monte is only the 26th player in 90 years of Dartmouth hockey, and only the second in the last 15 years, to reach 100 points.
Del Monte says he was more concerned with winning the game against St. Lawrence. The Big Green ended up dropping the game 5-4, despite two goals and an assist from Del Monte.
It is this kind of humility and dedication to the team that makes Del Monte one of the true stars in the recent history of the hockey program.
He came to Dartmouth as a recruit from Mississauga, Ontario, where he was a four-time honor roll member for his extremely successful high school team. Del Monte is a member of the highly touted roster of seniors on the team, along with Trevor Dodman, Patrick Turcotte, Mike Stacchi and Yanick Roussin.
Like a fine wine, Del Monte has improved with age, steadily increasing both his goal and overall point totals in each of his four seasons on the varsity squad.
In his rookie campaign, Del Monte had 17 points, including a team-high 13 assists. The next season, he improved to eight goals and 26 points. His junior season, he checked in with 11 goals and 29 points, only one point behind Scott Fraser '94 for the team lead in scoring. And, so far this year, he has 13 goals and 18 assists, for a career-high 31 points.
Hockey Coach Roger Demment said Del Monte, even as a freshman, was a vital cog of the Dartmouth offense. "He's played a major role in both powerplay and penalty kill situations in all four years," Demment said.
Del Monte has 103 points for his career and is tied for 20th on the all-time career points list.
But besides simply leading the team offensively, Del Monte also sets the tone for all his teammates to follow. As a co-captain of the team, along with Dodman, he leads by example.
"Not only is Dion a co-captain of the team, but he leads through his actions," Demment said."Every night that Dion goes on the ice, he competes to the fullest."
Demment said Del Monte's trademark is a highly disciplined work ethic and a fierce competitiveness.
"It's one thing to be a skilled or talented player, but that talent doesn't get you anywhere when you don't work hard at the same time," Demment said."I think Dion has realized the success he has had here at Dartmouth because of the combination of skill and desire to work hard."
While Del Monte said he was proud of the 100-point milestone, he heaped most of the praise upon his teammates, particularly his fellow members of the Class of '95.
"Patrick Turcotte has been on my line for four years and has been on the receiving end of a lot of my passes," he said."He's been directly responsible for a lot of those points."
"Same with Mike Stacchi and Trevor Dodman," he said. "Plus the whole team has helped me get where I am. I want them to know that I appreciate it."
Del Monte said it feels weird knowing the two games this weekend might very well be his last in college hockey.
"It doesn't seem real right now," he said. "It's kind of hard to grasp exactly. The whole time I've been here atDartmouth I've been playing hockey. It doesn't feel like it's going to stop on Saturday night."
Del Monte said he very much wants to continue playing hockey after he graduates. "I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there's an opportunity for me to play in North America somewhere," he said.
"The other possibility is going to Europe," he said."As a dual Canadian-Italian citizen, I'd love to go over to Italy and play if the chance came up."
Still, Del Monte is taking it one day at a time, trying to enjoy his last few months at Dartmouth.
"I remember when I got here and listened to the seniors back then say how fast it would go by, and to try to take advantage of all the opportunities that would be presented to me while I was here," he said. "It's hard to appreciate when you come in, but now that I'm a senior, everything they said is true."
