Lokomotiv - SKA. Press-conference

HC SKA head coach Sergei Zubov:

- It was a great spectacle, right up to the final moments. I hope that all the fans enjoyed it. We struggled in the second period, and allowed the opponents to get back into the game. We're lucky with the Lokomotiv powerplay. We're very happy that we won this game.

- How important was it for SKA to defeat the season's top team?

- It's always nice to defeat the leaders. However, any game is important.

- Jonas Enlund easily skated away from Vyacheslav Voynov. How is Vyacheslav feeling?

- He spends a lot of time on the ice, and is working hard physically. He didn't get back in time in that shift.

- Pyotr Vorobyov is SKA-1946's head coach. Did he give you advice for this game?

- We spoke once. SKA-1946 also won today, 2:0. I will congratulate him with that victory.

- Are you happy with how Anton Burdasov, Alexander Kadeikin and Ilya Kovalchuk played together?

- We used this combination in the previous game, and they are giving results.

- Why does the team continue to make mistakes when changing shifts?

- We will try to fix this in the next match. This is the work of the players and coaching staff.

- What do Lokomotiv have charisma in?

- They are a very phyiscal team. They work hard, and make use of their technical players who have individual quality. They are one of the strongest teams in the league.

- Say a few words about the fans?

- Travel more often, we are always happy to see them and feel their support.

HC Lokomotiv head coach Alexei Kudashov:

- Nuances decide such matches. In some moments we didn't work hard enough, in others lost out in one on one battles, took penalties, played poorly on special teams - we were second best in those components today.

- Would you agree that SKA got lucky. Vadim Shipachyov's marker and Andrei Loktionov's disallowed goal for example.

- If they scored, that means that they deserved it. As I said, we didn't check back enough and gave the opponents these goals. However, you have to give Ilya Kovalchuk his due - his quality meant that he scored two goals. When SKA scored, we should have played better.

- It seemed that after not scoring in the first shift, the team lost its rhythm.

- We started poorly and went down 0:2. Maybe if we had scored on that chance, things would have turned out differently. If we wouldn't have taken a penalty at neutral ice, SKA wouldn't have scored their third goal. It was that sort of game today.

- Some players were benched after Egor Averin's return.

- I wouldn't put it like that, we knew that Egor would find it tough coming back. He practically didn't play in the first period, and then we changed things up.

- What would you say about the fans?

- They supported us in a great way, just like always. They cheered for us to go forward and helped us.