Press conference after the first home game against Torpedo

HC SKA head coach Igor Larionov:

"I would like to congratulate the opponents with their victory. I'm disappointed with this match, but it's good that we have an opportunity to put things right on Wednesday. We have to regroup and go again. Overall, we were lacking the fire and drive which we associate with our group. These matches happen sometimes, we now have to prepare for the second game against this team."

What needs changing...

"When I spoke about regrouping, I was talking about the psychological side of the game. Even when you're lacking freshness, you have to show character and and compete with discipline. The penalty which we took resulting in Torpedo's third goal was completely unnecessary. I don't see any need to change things in a big way, but today we were lacking freshness and aggression. We have 48 hours in order to prepare for Wednesday."

When Nikita Zaitsev and Andrei Pedan will return...

"We're in constant contact with our doctors, and we don't want to rush anything. Zaitsev needs another week for his arm to regain its usual strength. As for Pedan, he should return after our away games in Moscow and Yaroslavl. We'll wait until they're 100% ready."

What goes on in the dressing room during the breaks...

"The dressing room is the players' territory. We don't listen to what they speak about amongst themselves. Normally, we enter the dressing room around five minutes before the next period is going to start and talk about what needs changing. We're speaking about character and mental strength. There aren't any easy games, you have to be prepared to save difficult matches. We're lacking dirty goals from the crease, at times we're guilty of trying too hard to make beautiful plays rather than just keeping it simple and shooting. If you don't shoot, you won't score. Just look at the incident in the first period, when Nikolai Goldobin opted to make a pass to Rocco Grimaldi out wide instead of taking the shot himself. These are the details which require improvement."

On Yegor Zavragin conceding two similar goals against Omsk and now Torpedo...

"Yes, we have just spoken about this in our coaches' room. Just like against Avangard, he conceded the same type of goal in the closing stages of the third period with the score locked at 2:2. However, we aren't going to point the finger to a 20-year-old who is learning and doing an awful lot of good things. In such moments, you need to make the big save for the team. We have to provide Yegor with support, especially given that he's a young goalkeeper. For his age, Yegor is playing brilliantly! 

"As for the goal scored by Vasily Atanasov, we have to give credit to the Torpedo player. Yegor didn't expect the shot to be taken from that angle."

HC Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod head coach Alexei Isakov:

"Congratulations to our team with this win. A lot which we had planned came off. I now want us to build on this performance and continue moving in the right direction."

The issue of playing SKA in two consecutive matches...

"To be honest, it's quite difficult to prepare mentally for two games in a row against the same opponents. On the other hand, though, we have the chance to analyse what happened today and immediately make the required adjustments against this team. It's practice ahead of the playoffs for both sides."

Whether SKA surprised Torpedo at all...

"It was a tense game from start to finish. The key was that we scored at the right times, responded well to the conceded goals and managed to control the situation. We're happy with our response to SKA's markers."