Igor Larionov speaks after beating Barys on the road

HC SKA head coach Igor Larionov:

“I would like to congratulate our team with winning the concluding match of this particular away series. It feels as though we haven’t been in Saint Petersburg for a month! Despite the large scoreline, Barys made it difficult for us and played well. They really did have a lot of scoring opportunities, but Artemiy Pleshkov was phenomenal in our net! His wonderful performance allowed us to emerge victorious.”

Targets for upcoming home matches…

“To be honest, we aren’t looking at the standings. We’re taking it game by game. Naturally enough, we’re thinking about the fact that the playoffs begin in a month. The process of building our team is important.”

Factor of SKA finding the balance between defence and attack…

“Alongside Marat Khairullin, Sergei Plotnikov and Nikolai Goldobin, we also can’t forget that Nikita Dishkovsky recorded two points too! We have a lot of players in our team who are capable of tallying plenty of points. Of course, when you score goals and dish out assists, you grow in confidence. Dishkovsky did really well for us today, his goal in the third period calmed the game down.

“Yes, it’s pleasing that we’re scoring lots of goals, but we can’t forget that our opponents are managing to create too many chances against us. We have to play better and more rationally in defence.”