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Leafs get revenge, even series

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Leaf Patrick Martens fights off a Nitehawk and goes for the puck. Martens scored one of the Leafs' 9 goals in the evening

It's anybody's series now.

After picking up their first win of the playoffs Friday, the Nelson Junior Leafs carried their momentum forward and treated the Beaver Valley Nitehawks to a 9-1 blowout Saturday night.

The Leafs hit the board nine minutes into play, when Patrick Martens bounced the puck past starting goalie Mike Vlanich. A long shot in by Dustin Johnson a few minutes later sent the team into the second period up 2-0.

The Nitehawks swapped Vlanich for backup goaltender Zach Perehudoff, but the Leafs kept the pressure on—and then some.

With the second period less than three minutes old, forward Colton Malmsten added a third marker. And when the Leafs went down a man 10 minutes in, Gavin Currie managed to steal the puck away from the Hawks, take a shot at the net, and catch his own rebound for goal number four.

A penalty for the Nitehawks two minutes later gave team captain Taylor O'Neil a chance to get in on the point party, with the defenceman scoring his first marker of the game.

Beaver Valley would score their only goal a minute later, but before the period closed Johnson would widen the gap a second time.

With the team out in front, O'Neil—who opened the third period with another goal of his own—told the Star it was important to keep players focused going into the final third.

"In between periods we were making sure everyone's still on the same page, going in the right direction," he said.

The Leafs scored two more times before the clock ran out, as Braeden Hikichi then Dallon Stodart took advantage of Beaver Valley penalties.

It was a game reminiscent of the playoff series opener, which saw the Hawks savage the Leafs 13-2. But O'Neil says staying humble and keeping the pressure on will be key to getting through the next several games.

"If we do what we're supposed to do, we're going to win games," he added. "It's just following through with it."

Goaltender Marcus Beesley, who fought off 26 shots from the Nitehawks Saturday, agreed.

"We've seen what happens when they blew us out. It didn't change the series dramatically, and we were able to come back," he said. "We want to make sure the same thing doesn't happen in reverse now and that should keep us on out toes."

The teams head to Fruitvale Monday for game five of the series, before returning to the Nelson and District Community Complex Tuesday at 7 p.m. for game six.