Roman Rotenberg speaks after playing CSKA in Moscow

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- Both teams displayed exciting, end-to-end ice hockey. There was a fantastic atmosphere inside the arena, I think that everyone enjoyed the game. At the moment, we have a lot of ill and injured players. In the third period, our young players committed mistakes. Emil Galimov will hopefully play on Friday, and the likes of Stepan Falkovsky, Nikolai Prokhorkin and Zakhar Bardakov will soon return. We have to win all of our matches regardless of which players are on the ice. When the playoffs begin, we must win games even when we are tired. Games against CSKA, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and Dynamo Moscow are helping us prepare for the playoffs, and we have more matches with these opponents coming up in January. Just like CSKA, we have to shoot from any position in order to create goals out of nothing. Furthermore, in order for the puck to not travel towards our goal after a ricochet, we have to adjust our approach. Our powerplay also requires improvement.

- SKA seemed to struggle after resting for three days.

- We competed in the correct manner during the first two periods. A lot of our players on the ice today don't have a lot of experience of playing against CSKA, but these matches are helping them to improve. We knew that CSKA would be pumped up after losing two in a

row. From our point of view, we now have to focus on playing against Vityaz Moscow Region on Friday, we will prepare seriously. Our players must remember that you don't need to make so many passes against CSKA, instead of shooting we're constantly looking to find a teammate with a pass. We must start being more ruthless in front of goal and shooting more often instead of passing.

- Why did SKA commit so many mistakes?

- As I have already said, our players are lacking experience of matches against CSKA. The opponents' second goal was down to Konstantin Okulov's quality. For the third, we took a risk as we needed to equalise. Unfortunately, we lost the puck and allowed CSKA to skate 2-on-1. Not long before that, when the score was only 1:2, Nikita Gusev missed an empty net. We have to start using our scoring opportunities.

- When the score was 1:1, Vladislav Podyapolsky took a penalty for hooking the puck up and out of play. Was this incident decisive?

- CSKA scored their second goal a few seconds after that particular powerplay had ended. It was a technical mistake, but I'm sure that this won't happen again. Vladislav produced a good performance in net.

- Danila Moiseev wasn't mentioned when you were speaking about the injured players who are on their way back. Is his injury more serious?

- I don't want to name names, but some players are out for the season. I know that CSKA also have players who won't play again in the current campaign. Galimov is 100% ready, he will take to the ice on Friday. Nonetheless, regardless of our line-up, we should always win.

- So far this season, the series score between SKA and CSKA is 2-2.

- We're treating each game individually, trying to improve all of the details. Sometimes, even when you play really well, you end up losing and vice-versa. Both SKA and CSKA are strong teams, every match against them is very interesting. We're also playing six games against Lokomotiv and Dynamo this season. With the playoffs in mind, this is only a good thing. Will we play against CSKA at the Gazprom Arena again? We have to win in order to deserve that opportunity! It was great to play in front of 70,000 fans.

- How satisfied are you with your work on the transfer market?

- We did everything we could. Our job is to make sure that we have enough reserves to last us for the entire season. We're happy with the squad which we have at our disposal, we will work hard with all of our players. Right now, we only have to think about our next game against Vityaz, and it won't be easy at all; the opponents are fighting for a spot in the playoffs.