Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Matt Scolieri fires a shot at the net during the second period of Sunday’s game against Chardon Notre Dame Cathedral Latin

YOUNGSTOWN — After playing their last game on their “home” ice on Saturday, the Canfield hockey seniors got to play their final regular season game at a new venue.

The Cardinals took the ice at the Covelli Centre for the first time in program history on Sunday, where they took down Chardon Notre Dame Cathedral Latin, 5-0, to close the regular season out on a three-game winning streak.

“In the last two games, we’ve really come together as a team,” Canfield coach Steve Covelli said. “Something finally clicked and we’re working as a joint effort instead of individuals and it’s obviously shown up in the last two games.”

The Cardinals, motivated by their win Saturday, came out of the gates Sunday on a tear as well. Canfield potted four goals in the first period, with the first two coming in the first three minutes.

It was the junior class who got things going in the opening period with Antonio Maroun and Tristan Maroun scoring goals 33 seconds apart.

Drew Rosteck then put one away later on in the period and Luke Berry scored the final goal of the first period with two minutes remaining to send the Cardinals to the locker room with a 4-0 lead.

The new environment combined with the team’s senior night gave the kids an added spark early.

“It was senior night … and it’s different coming from the rinks that we normally play to a venue like this,” Covelli said. “The kids were pretty pumped up, and it showed to start the game. They were all amped up to play here, a little bit of motivation.”

They came out just as amped in the second period as Rosteck scored the final goal of the afternoon just 10 seconds into the second frame.

The Cardinal defense handled things the rest of the way, and goaltender Cory Knarr picked up his first shutout of the season.

“We started quick and did the same thing yesterday,” Covelli said. “We started quick, played three hard periods, won the game 2-1, come in and jump up 3-0 on a team, that sets the tone right there. As soon as you’re up three goals, you can kind of work on things you need to work on. That’s kind of the way we played that game.”

Senior Matt Scolieri, one of the team’s leading scorers, took a backseat today to try and help one of the other seniors get his first goal. While it didn’t happen, Scoleri is excited that the team is finding its groove now.

“My main goal was to get my fellow senior Zane Perrico his first goal, which didn’t happen, but overall I had a blast,” Scolieri said. “So glad everything happened the way it did. I’m so glad to see things coming together towards the end just before playoffs and I’m looking forward to that as well.”

It’s been an up and down year for the Cardinals, but the team is finding itself at just the right time. After a couple rough patches throughout the year, a few key injuries gave the team a much-needed wake up call.

“We had two really good practices, a little discipline stuff and we started realizing that it’s a team, not an individual, it’s a joint effort,” Covelli said. “They bought into that in the past few weeks. Then, we got everybody healthy. We had Matt (Scolieri) out three games with a concussion and Drew (Rosteck) was out sick.

“It seemed like when those two missed, the other guys started seeing the difference and then they started working hard. When those two came back, we just kind of clicked together. Now we’ve got a unit that’s healthy and working together, so it’s made a difference.”

Canfield ends the regular season at 7-7. The tournament bracket will be set on Feb. 9 and they’re also going to be involved in the Baron Cup tournament as a part of their league, the Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League..

“These two games were so important,” Covelli said. “These four points were big. We don’t know where we sit yet, but we’re going to play Tuesday or Wednesday and go from there.”

byauger@tribtoday.com