Alexey Ponikarovsky: "We are playing every game with our backs to the wall"

- How have you managed to come back in the series?

- When we were down 0:3 in the series, everyone understood that if we don't give 100% nothing good will come out of this situation. We came out and played the fourth game fighting with character, and since then we have continued in the same vein. I think that this was the key moment. Today however we couldn't convert on the powerplay as we would have wanted.

- Did not scoring on that five minute powerplay deflate the team?

- No, I wouldn't say that. It happens in hockey, and afterwards the game carried on and we had to score when it was five on five.

- Do you not feel that you are creating history? SKA is the tenth team that has clawed back an 0:3 deficit, and can become the fifth team ever to win a series having trailed by three games.

- I don't think that any of the guys are thinking about this. We have discussed this in the dressing room, and it's not important if this is new history or not - our task is to go out and play well, fight for each other, and then we will get the desired result.

- How can you forget about making history though?

- People who are involved in hockey are talking about this a lot. For us though it's not an important issue, we simply want to win and qualify for the final. We are playing every game with our backs to the wall, and in the seventh and deciding game we have to give everything.

- Will the last game in this series be the toughest?

- Every game has been like the last one for us, nothing is going to change - we will go out and play with the same mindset, and give our all.

- Do you have confidence that SKA can defeat CSKA in this series?

- We have won this game, but we aren't getting carried away. Everyone understands that the series score is now 3:3, the next game is the deciding one, and we need to keep our emotions and play.