Anton Belov: "We won the battle on the opposing crease"

HC SKA defenseman Anton Belov:

- It's good that we won today. We earned the victory because we won the battle on the opposing crease, the majority of our goals were scored after we claimed the rebounds. This is what we were missing in previous matches. However, we did make mistakes today, notably conceding a goal on the powerplay. We need to get rid of such errors.

- What is the most difficult aspect for a team when leading 5:1 after the first period?

- It was tough for the goalkeeper, there weren't a lot of shots and he had to keep his concentration for the entire 60 minutes. Professional teams need to continue playing and see the game through to victory.

- Who did you pick as the best player?

- Stepan Starkov. He scored his first goal for the main team and dished out an assist, so he deserved that status. He tried his best out there on the ice.

- Andrei Kuzmenko scored a beautiful goal in the second period.

- I think that he scored a similar goal last season. He's building up his own highlight reel!

- On Monday, SKA contrived to lose to Dinamo Riga, but now you have beaten Avtomobilist, one of the best teams in the KHL Eastern Conference. Which is the real SKA?

- We're searching for our optimal level. At the moment, we're very much up and down, we lost to Dinamo Riga, beat Avtomobilist, performed really well against Traktor on the road and conceded a late winner to Metallurg Magnitogorsk. We're working hard during our training sessions. We have enough time to improve before the Gagarin Cup playoffs begin.