Roman Rotenberg speaks after playing Ak Bars in Kazan

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

“I think that both teams displayed high quality ice hockey. Unfortunately, even though we had the majority of chances, we ended up conceding the first goal. We didn’t use our coach’s challenge for interference because often such decisions are made in favour of the attacking team. The second goal we conceded was poor, but we subsequently displayed character and equalised. This point means a lot for us.

“We lost a lot of energy as a consequence of our penalties. Three points from a possible six during this road trip isn’t the best result, but it’s something we can take and build on. We hadn’t scored for 138 consecutive minutes before our first goal today? If you take a look at the statistics, you’ll see that we’ve scored 101 already this season. Sometimes you can’t score because of a psychological barrier, and we must also remember that all teams in the KHL are solid in defence.

“Both teams committed two mistakes for the conceded goals today. Yes, we lost in overtime, but remember that we don’t play 3-on-3 hockey in the playoffs! The winning goal for Kazan scored by Kirill Semyonov was a creative play, we want to see more skill like that in our league.

“How can I explain losing six out of seven matches? It’s ice hockey. When we won seven in a row, less journalists were interested in attending our press-conferences! The media care more about defeats than victories. In order to win the Gagarin Cup, you have to lose some games along the way as well. We showed excellent character to equalise from two down today, we’ll be fine if we continue displaying such great determination. We must stop taking so many penalties too.

“Evgeny Kuznetsov looked lethargic out there? He’s continuing to adapt to our league after spending a long time over in the NHL. Nonetheless, I believe that Evgeny is improving with every passing game and is helping the team with his play. For example, he provided the assist for Tony DeAngelo’s goal in the third period.”