June 27, 2014
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish had a strong first season both on and off the ice in Hockey East during the 2013-14 campaign.
After finishing with a 9-9-2 league mark on the ice and then upsetting regular-season champion Boston College in the quarterfinals, Notre Dame advanced to TD Garden in Boston for the Hockey East championships in its first season in the conference.
On Friday, Hockey East announced that eight members of the Notre Dame hockey team were among a league-record 109 student-athletes to be named to the 2013-14 All-Academic team. To be selected to the Hockey East All-Academic Team, players achieved a 3.0 or better grade-point average in each of the two academic periods in which they competed during the season.
Selected to the team representing the Irish were junior Joe Aiken (Whitefish Bay, Wis.), senior Jeff Costello (Milwaukee, Wis.), senior David Gerths (Ankeny, Iowa), freshman Chad Katunar (Victoria, B.C.), senior Bryan Rust (Novi, Mich.), sophomore Andy Ryan (Brighton, Mich.), junior Peter Schneider (Vienna, Austria) and senior Mike Voran (Livonia, Mich.).
Schneider led all Irish hockey players with a 3.95 grade point for the 2013-14 season, including a perfect 4.0 mark for the spring semester with a double major in finance and economics and a minor in actuary. He also earned Capital One Academic All-District V At-Large first team honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) in May.
The Vienna, Austria native has twice been selected as the winner of the Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley Rockne Student-Athlete Award (2013, 2014) and was Notre Dame’s selection to the 2012-13 CCHA Scholar-Athlete Team in the final season of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
Team captain Jeff Costello was one of four Irish seniors that qualified for the Hockey East All-Academic Team.
|
 |
A three-time monogram winner, Schneider helped the Irish to a 23-15-2 overall record this past season along with a trip to the Hockey East semifinals and the NCAA West Regionals. He turned in career highs in goals (8), assists (8) and points (16) for the year while adding one short-handed goal and two game winners and was +7 for the campaign.
Aiken spent his first season with the Irish after walking on to the team in the fall. He had a 3.35 grade-point average as a finance major in the Mendoza College of Business. During the season, he saw action in five games and had no points.
Costello served as team captain in his senior season and earned a 3.50 grade-point average in his final season as a marketing major at Notre Dame. He was sixth on the team in scoring with 13 goals and nine assists for 22 points in 40 games. His 13 goals included four power-play goals and one game winner while he was +8 for the year. He led the Irish with 73 penalty minutes for the season. The veteran left wing was one of four Irish seniors to be honored by Hockey East. A fifth-round draft choice of the Ottawa Senators in 2010, Costello saw his rights traded at the trading deadline last March to the Vancouver Canucks.
The second senior selected to the team was Gerths who had a 3.00 GPA in his final season on his way to a degree in marketing in the Mendoza College of Business. The center was a four-year regular in the Notre Dame lineup and saw action in 36 games for Notre Dame, scoring one goal with five assists for six points. He was +6 on the season with 28 minutes in penalties and his only goal was a game winner. Following the Irish season, Gerths signed with the South Carolina Stingrays of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) where he picked up one assist in four games.
Katunar was the lone Notre Dame freshman selected to the Hockey East All-Academic team as he checked in with a 3.80 grade-point average in his first year while enrolled in the First Year of Studies program. The 6-5, 232-pound goaltender saw action in five games as the back up to senior Steven Summerhays (Anchorage, Alaska), making three starts on the year. He was 2-1-0 with a 2.36 goals-against average and a .881 save percentage.
Freshman goaltender Chad Katunar turned in a 3.8 grade-point average in his rookie year at Notre Dame and was the lone Irish freshman named to the Hockey East All-Academic Team.
|
|
Rust was the third member of the senior class selected, as he turned in a 3.167 mark in his final year as a finance major in the Mendoza College of Business. On the ice, he led the Irish with 17 goals and finished second in points with 33 for the season. An alternate captain, Rust had four power-play goals, two short-handed tallies and three game winners while turning in a +16 rating for the year. A third-round draft choice of the Pittsburgh Penguins, he finished the year with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins where he saw action in two regular season games and one Calder Cup playoff game but did not pick up any points.
Ryan was the lone sophomore on the squad and he owned a 3.237 grade-point average for the year in the Mendoza College of Business. The second-year blue liner was a regular on defense, playing in 38 of 40 games. He scored a pair of goals and added five assists for seven points on the way to earning his first monogram with the Irish. Ryan picked up 14 minutes in penalties and was +7 on the season.
Voran closes out the group of four seniors and eight Notre Dame players selected to the All-Academic Team. The marketing major had a 3.64 GPA in his final year in the Mendoza College of Business. A four-time monogram winner, Voran played in 33 games and had six assists for the year. He picked up 22 minutes in penalties and was +2 on the season.
Hockey East also selects a Top Scholar-Athlete to the player with the best grade-point average for the year. That honor went to Massachusetts junior defenseman Oleg Yevenko and Merrimack College freshman forward Hampus Gustaffson as both players turned in perfect 4.0 grade points in both semesters.
Of the 109 players selected, 11 of them received Distinguished Scholar status, having qualified for the All-Academic Team in all four of their seasons of varsity play. 15 others are three-time honorees. Merrimack College led the way with 19 qualifiers while Maine and UMass.-Lowell had 16 each.
The 2013-14 Hockey East Academic All-Star team was chosen from the players with the top grade-point averages by position. The goaltender on the team was Alex Wakaluk (3.92) of Massachusetts. Three defensemen were chosen led by Yevenko (4.00) of Massachusetts, Eric Schurhamer (3.96) of Maine and Trevor van Riemsdyck (3.96) of New Hampshire. The three forwards were Gustaffson (4.00) of Merrimack, Evan Stack (3.97) of Massachusetts and Vinny Scotti (3.96) of Merrimack.