Ak Bars - SKA. Press-conference of Game One

HC SKA head coach Vyacheslav Bykov:

- The guys tried to do what we wanted them to do, and they did a good job. This is only the start of the series, nothing has happened yet.

- At the start of every match, the whole team comes out on to the ice with the starting line-up. Is this part of your plan?

- It's already one of our traditions.

- Rate Viktor Tikhonov's performance.

- He found it tough going, but he dealt with his task.

- The first minute of the second period was one of today's key moments. Did you want your team to begin crashing the net hard?

- We know that Ak Bars generally play well in second periods, we simply informed the guys about that.

- SKA have lost all second matches of every series this campaign so far. How will you change this?

- I haven't looked at those statistics, but we need to break this tradition.

HC Ak Bars head coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov:

- We know where we played poorly. We should draw our conclusions and prepare for the next match.

- You also lost your first match against HC Avangard Omsk after coming off the back of a lengthy break.

- These are our problems which we should sort out ourselves.

- You said that you would close down Vadim Shipachyov's line. Did you not manage to do that?

- I said that we would try.

- Do you have questions for Anders Nilsson to answer to?

- No.

- What pleased you today?

- I can't say anything much now. The guys played until the end, and even when the score was 0:3 they played with more courage and created some chances. That is the only thing that pleased me.