Feb. 11, 2013
Notre Dame, Ind. – University of Notre Dame junior left wing Jeff Costello (Milwaukee, Wis.) and freshman left wing Thomas DiPauli (Woodridge, Ill.) have been named the CCHA Postgame offensive player of the week and the Gongshow rookie of the week respectively for the week ending Feb. 10. The two Irish players played instrumental roles in Notre Dame’s sweep of Michigan on Feb. 8-9 at the Compton Family Ice Arena.
Costello paced the Irish offensive attack on the weekend, scoring one goal and adding five assists for six points as he and his linemates – center Anders Lee (Jr., Edina, Minn.) and right wing Bryan Rust (Jr., Novi, Mich.) – were racking up 16 points (seven goals and nine assists) in the 7-4 and 6-4 wins over the Wolverines.
In Friday’s 7-4 victory, Costello assisted on three of Notre Dame’s first four goals with his third assist on a Lee power-play goal late in the second period, giving the Irish the lead for good at 4-3. The Ottawa Senator draft choice had two shots on goal in the game and blocked two shots on the way to being named the Perani Cup second star of the night.
On Saturday night, the 6-0, 212-pound left wing added three more points, getting a goal and two assists in the 6-4 win. He opened the scoring at 12:10 of the first period as he barged and charged his way past a Michigan defender to jam a shot past goaltender Jared Rutledge for his seventh goal of the season. He then helped set up the next two Irish goals by Lee and Rust to build a 3-1 lead. For the night, Costello had three shots on goal, added another blocked shot and was +2 while earning Perani Cup first star of the game honors.
For the season, Costello ranks fourth in scoring on the squad with seven goals and career highs in assists (15) and points (22). He is fourth on the team with a +11 rating.
DiPauli takes his first rookie of the week honors since joining the Irish as he assisted on three goals for the weekend, setting up the game winners each night versus the Wolverines. He had two shots on goal and was +3 for the series.
In the 7-4 win on Feb. 8, DiPauli had a pair of assists and was credited with his first of the night at 7:05 of the third period when he set up sophomore defenseman Eric Johnson’s (Verona, Wis.) game winner and first career goal to make it a 5-4 game. He then set up Rust’s empty net goal with 15 seconds left when he blocked a Michigan shot with the puck bouncing to Rust who raced down the ice to shoot it into the open goal for the final goal of the night.
The following evening, DiPauli was at it again as his cross-rink pass early in the third period found a streaking Austin Wuthrich (So., Anchorage, Alaska) at the Michigan blue line. Wuthrich hammered a slap shot from the top of the right circle past Rutledge for his third goal of the year and the game winner as it made it a 5-2 game.
DiPauli has played in all 30 games this season as a freshman and has five goals and six assists for 11 points and is +9 for the year.
Notre Dame is currently 18-11-1 overall and 14-7-1-1 in the CCHA for 44 points and is currently third in the CCHA behind Miami (47) and Western Michigan (46). The Irish face Miami this weekend – on Friday, Feb. 15 at Oxford, Ohio and then on Sunday, Feb. 17 at Chicago’s Soldier Field as part of the OfficeMax Hockey City Classic.