Alexey Ponikarovsky: "The best form of defence is attack"

- Would you agree that SKA got lucky today?

- I wouldn't say that luck was on our side. We scored the goals which we should have scored, and any shot at the moment is dangerous. I think that we played tight in defence too. We let Ak Bars have a couple of attacks, but overall the guys fought hard and performed well.

- Did you want to play in a patient manner?

- No, at the start we wanted to go for it. Even after we scored, we kept on pushing forward. The best form of defence is attack. You need to play solid in defence too, but attacking well is very important.

- What's the hardest thing when leading 3:1?

- We have to go and play in Kazan with the same mindset. We need to treat it like our last game.

- Do you like playing with Pyotr Khokhryakov or Anton Burdasov more?

- There's no difference. The coaching staff make some changes now and again, and you should always be ready to play with anyone. We have already played together, there wasn't any surprises. Overall I think we played well.

- It seemed as though it was a better game than the previous one.

- They attacked more after we went ahead, forechecked us a lot, and pressed hard in our zone. Sometimes we managed to catch them on the counterattack. We knew what to expect from them, they are a technical team which have four good lines. It was very important to set a high tempo.

- What was more important - to score a quick goal, or to respond immediately after Ak Bars scored?

- Every goal is important in the playoffs. It's good that we scored straight after the opening faceoff, it gave us some confidence. We can't hope for that in every game though, and we have to play like we have done all series.

- Where will the Gagarin Cup won? In Kazan or Saint Petersburg?

- Let's not guess ahead, every game is like our final one. It's not important where we are playing, home or away we will go for the win.