Press conference after SKA hosted Dynamo in Saint Petersburg

HC SKA head coach Igor Larionov:

“At this moment in time, it’s difficult to analyse our performance in the latter two periods and the goals which we conceded. After we had scored shorthanded, there wasn’t anything to suggest that we were going to concede such cheap goals. We played well in the maiden stanza, competing at a high tempo and creating opportunities. If Rocco Grimaldi would have made it 2:1 in our favour with his chance, I’m sure that the outcome could have been different. It’s vital that we regroup quickly and forget about this game as soon as possible.”

Conceding two goals after the inexperienced Nikita Nedopyokin lost faceoffs to Jordan Weal…

“If I’m not mistaken, only Sergei Plotnikov and Mikhail Vorobyov won the majority of their faceoff draws. Nikita’s a young guy, but we want to allow him to gain experience. He’s usually pretty reliable when it comes to faceoffs. And, we have to remember that the other players should react quickly to faceoffs, gather loose pucks and block incoming shots. Let’s not be too critical towards our young players.”

Lack of discipline in the third period…

“When you’re down 1:4, players lose concentration, begin talking to referees and committing fouls. When preparing for this match, we took note of the fact that six or seven of Dynamo’s most recent goals were scored on the powerplay. This was the only problem which we expected to encounter against this particular opponent. Unfortunately, our plan didn’t work. We have to keep our emotions in check and control ourselves.”

Defensive issues…

“Defence begins with losing possession in the attacking zone. In order to possess an effective defensive unit, the players have to be on the same page, help each other and burn with desire to win the battles. Furthermore, another vital aspect is how you begin your next attack after winning the puck back. The defensemen should think quicker, pick out the forwards quicker. We were lacking mental freshness. We have plenty of quick forwards on the wings, but they weren’t given the puck quick enough. All of these elements had an effect on the outcome.”

Player emotions…

“Yes, we were on a nine-game points streak, but you have to compete with emotion in every match. We wanted to extend that streak, but it was a bad day for us. Maybe we were lacking that little bit extra from our players. As coaches, we need to take responsibility for what happened and admit that we didn’t get our message through to the guys. The bad moments in today’s match resulted in us losing two points.”

Injured players…

“Vladislav Romanov, Valentin Zykov, Igor Larionov Junior and Brendan Leipsic should all soon return. This will consequently give us the opportunity to inject some freshness into our team and give some of the other guys a rest. In the playoffs, it often happens that a player who you didn’t have high expectations for becomes a hero! The players returning will have around five or six games to get up to speed before the playoffs begin. We’ve been playing without Trevor Murphy, the league’s best defenseman, for practically three months already, and the same can be said for Nikita Zaitsev. Pavel Koledov will also probably be on the sidelines for a long time.

“The playoffs are a completely new competition. It’s the best time in professional sport, with character, unity and team spirit playing decisive roles. We want to ensure that we don’t have any major injury issues before the playoffs begin.”

HC Dynamo Moscow head coach Vyacheslav Kozlov:

“First of all, I would like to congratulate Dynamo’s players and fans with qualifying for the playoffs. In terms of today’s game, we started well and opened the scoring. We did commit a mistake for SKA’s shorthanded goal, but we subsequently played the right way in the second frame and pinned the opponents inside their zone. We scored good goals and took advantage of the mistakes which SKA committed.”

Three quickfire goals in the second period…

“We scored one good goal after winning back possession, with Kirill Adamchuk bursting through the SKA defence. The key moment was when Weal turned Nikita Gusev’s pass in on the powerplay; that goal provided us with a well-needed confidence boost.”