Roman Rotenberg speaks after playing Kunlun in Mytishchi

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

“It’s pleasing that there were a lot of fans inside the arena today. Moreover, lots of children from ice hockey academies – including the SKA Academy - were also in attendance. Our away fans provided us with assistance and plenty of energy thanks to their passionate support too.

“This wasn’t our best performance today, even though we initially started well. However, after playing in accordance with our plan and creating chances during the opening eight minutes, we subsequently conceded as a result of turning the puck over. Unfortunately, our lack of discipline and silly penalties let us down.

“When they scored in overtime, Mikhail Vorobyov took his eye off the play because he felt that a foul had been committed against him. However, I think that our players have to rise about this and stop looking for justice. Let’s just play ice hockey instead. To be honest, I want our players to stop talking to the referees altogether. If required, either myself or our captain Alexander Nikishin will speak with the officials, no one else. I apologised to the referees after the match for our players’ behaviour.

“This was Pavel Moisevich’s first appearance of the campaign in our net? Pavel was phenomenal today! If we can take anything positive away from this game, then it’s Moisevich’s fantastic display. Ivan Vydrenkov also stood out today, he scored his first KHL goal. He was the scorer of our golden goal in the Kharlamov Cup final last season.

“Kunlun’s progress? They have lots of quality players and guys who shoot with their right arms. If they play in such a disciplined manner like today, they can qualify for the Gagarin Cup playoffs. The same can be said for any team in our league.

“Our lack of discipline? Guys like Tony DeAngelo and Evgeny Kuznetsov are used to speaking to the referees in the NHL. However, that’s not acceptable here in the KHL. We need to respect our league’s culture and refrain from talking with the officials. On one occasion the referee wanted to issue DeAngelo a match penalty because of something which he said, but I apologised to the official and told him that it’s just emotion. Furthermore, there is the language barrier. I’ve asked Tony to stop talking to the referees.”