Igor Larionov speaks after beating Lokomotiv in Yaroslavl

SKA head coach Igor Larionov:

"It was a fascinating game with lots of beautiful goals. Of course, it’s great to achieve such a dramatic victory! We’re really happy that we are leaving Yaroslavl with two points.”

If there was an improvement in terms of movement…

“I think that our movement improved, yes. We managed to have a short rest over the last couple of days. As you can see, two of our most important centre forwards aren’t with us right now because of injury and illness, but I’m happy with our performance level today. We had more freshness. After such a tough loss in Kazan, we proved our worth tonight and reacted in the right way. Not everything was good today, but the main thing is that the game ended with our victory.”

Why Artemiy Pleshkov was selected in net…

“Yegor Zavragin is currently in the VHL and is performing well; game time is useful for any young goalkeeper. Sergei Ivanov is also playing well this season. However, as a consequence of competing against a Lokomotiv team which plays in a typical North American manner with lots of shots and players in front of the net, we chose Artemiy as he’s a guy who fights hard for the rebounds. In my opinion, he played excellently today.”

Situation concerning captains Andrei Pedan and Sergei Plotnikov…

“To be honest with you, I’m surprised about this situation myself. Yesterday, I asked the relevant people to put the letter C on Sergei’s jersey. Andrei was our captain while Sergei was out with injury, and, because we had a winning streak, we didn’t change anything until we lost to Kazan. Andrei was our captain today as a consequence of the official match protocol having shown that he was to wear the C on his chest. Alls well that ends well, although Sergei will be our captain on Thursday.”