Roman Rotenberg speaks after game four against CSKA

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- There was a wonderful atmosphere inside the sold-out stadium. 400 of our supporters travelled to Moscow for the game! I would like to thank them for their fantastic support. Our guys did a great job, they fully followed the game plan. However, this was only one game, so we now have to focus on the next match and improve some aspects. We continue working hard.

- Only 17 seconds separated your two goals in the second stanza. Was it the decisive moment?

- In order to beat their goalkeeper, we need to shoot in the required manner. This is something which we can improve. We had a lot of opportunities to score earlier. Nonetheless, we played in accordance with our system today.

- There have been reports stating that Nikita Gusev has been sidelined from the team as a result of discipline issues.

- We won't speak about that, it's our internal matter.

- SKA avoided taking a single penalty minute in such a tight game. How did you manage to play so successfully in defence?

- We worked hard with our legs. The key is down to hard work and discipline, and today we were really disciplined. The guys fought for each other, blocked pucks, didn't give the opponents chances to score and worked hard across every single millimetre of the ice. Yes, there were mistakes, but we will work on avoiding them in our upcoming games.

- Marat Khusnutdinov won 14 of his 19 duels. How would you rate his and the other players' performances?

- We reverted to the line-up which we were using at the start of the campaign. I remember how well we initially started the season. This is the playoffs, and I'm not going to single anyone out. It was a true team win.

- Could you compare the SKA - CSKA rivalry to Real Madrid against Barcelona in football?

- Two strong teams are playing against each other, it's like a Super Series. I think that our games are close to the level of the NHL, if not better. We're witnessing a very high level of ice hockey. Right now, Boston, Colorado and Tampa Bay are probably the strongest teams in the NHL, and we're striving to play at their level. It's all down to hard work and discipline.