Offences may get most of the highlights and accolades, but without goaltending, a team鈥檚 chances at victory greatly decrease.

And with their goals against drastically reduced, the Black Fish have put together their first two-game winning streak of the season following a 17-11 win over the Sea Spray on Tuesday night, Feb. 7, at 91原创 Events Centre. With the win, the Black Fish improved to 5-6 while the Sea Spray sit at 6-5.

鈥淥ur goalies played really well in both of those games. If you get that big save, it carries you a little bit farther. If they score that goal, it breaks your back a little bit and you can鈥檛 bounce back. 鈥淣o disrespect to our previous goalies, but they were in tough. They had a tough go. We were playing not too bad. but we just couldn鈥檛 get the big save,鈥� said Black Fish coach Rod Jensen.

Tuesday鈥檚 game saw the debut of new Black Fish goaltender Brandon Humphrey 鈥� the 2022 Arena Lacrosse League West Most Outstanding Goaltender 鈥� who was acquired in a trade with the Grizzlies.

鈥淏randon made a couple of key saves,鈥� Jensen said. 鈥淚f they [had gone] in, it could have been a different story.鈥�

Black Fish received the saves they needed, and after briefly trailing 1-0, led the rest of the way. The score was 11-9 late in the third quarter before the Black Fish four straight to put the game out of reach.

Ryan Jones (2+6) was the first star following an eight-point performance.

And while he didn鈥檛 factor on the scoresheet, Reese Barnes had a huge impact on the game, winning 25 of 31 face-offs.

鈥淭hat is like basically having the ball for an extra half a period,鈥� Rod Jensen said.

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This was the third meeting of the season between the teams with the Sea Spray winning the previous two encounters, 14-13 and 17-16.

鈥淲e have a good core of defenders (but) we haven鈥檛 played terribly well together,鈥� Rod Jensen said, crediting assistant coach Ian Poole for the work he has put in with the players.

Another key in the victory was the Black Fish transition, which contributed a handful of goals, including a pair of short-handed markers.

鈥淚 think we did a good job just worrying about ourselves and not going crazy this game and things just kind of came to us,鈥� said Nick Jensen, the game鈥檚 third star following a hat trick and four points. 鈥淭he boys are just buying in. People are excited.

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The loss was a second straight for the Sea Spray.

Week 11 wraps up with the Shooting Eagles (6-4) and Grizzlies (4-6) playing on Wednesday (February 8) at 91原创 Events Centre with a 7:00pm start. Following that game, all four teams will be off until February 19 when they return to LEC for a doubleheader with games at 1:00pm and 4:00pm.