Roman Rotenberg speaks after playing Lokomotiv in Yaroslavl

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- Just like we expected, it was a physical match. Lokomotiv are strong opponents, they play well in defence. It was an even first period, but then we made mistakes in the second which resulted in cheap conceded goals. Nevertheless, our guys did a good job in the third frame, we created opportunities to score. Our finishing let us down. We remember how Lokomotiv head coach Igor Nikitin worked with CSKA Moscow, he uses the same system here in Yaroslavl. We will make improvements to our game, especially our faceoffs. This defeat will definitely make us stronger. When it comes to the injury suffered by Zakhar Bardakov, then these things are simply not acceptable. We will probably speak to the KHL about this, because changes need to be made. I can't confirm that it was done on purpose, but there was enough time for the Lokomotiv employee to close the gate along the boards. It was obvious that the Lokomotiv player landed a hit against Bardakov. It's a serious injury. I remember when we lost against CSKA in the Gagarin Cup playoffs after the puck had already exited the play, this was an incident which resulted in video reviews being introduced if a goal was scored after the puck had already hit the netting above the goal. Technical specialists should always close the gates in time, it is absolutely vital otherwise you can receive a terrible injury. Overall, we will now prepare for the next game.

- How does Bardakov feel now?

- The main thing is that he's alive! Yes, we all want to win, but you have never seen a SKA employee leave the gate along the boards open for an opposing player to receive an injury. This puts a player's life in danger. Bardakov will now go for medical examinations in hospital.

- Did you really miss Valentin Zykov today? It was a fast, physical game.

- We are missing all of our injured players! The fact that the ice is 26 meters played a role today, we aren't used to playing at such a rink. It makes it difficult to skate to the crease. However, our job is to train better and not pay attention to the ice size. There is a possibility that we will play against Yaroslavl in the playoffs on this ice. We need to play with more speed and movement, powering to the crease and scoring goals. Lokomotiv goalkeeper Daniil Isaev played well, he was their best player. Nevertheless, he does skate out off his line, so in the future we need to fake shots and take the puck around him.

- SKA didn't seem ready for such a physical approach from Lokomotiv in the first period.

- If you look at the statistics, you can see that we landed more hits than Lokomotiv. We're ready to play physical. When a game is physical, it's more exciting for the fans. The key factor was our poor performance on faceoffs. Plus, Bardakov - who is a centre forward - had to leave the game in the second period. Despite that issue, though, I liked how we played in the third frame. We have to improve our play. In this match, our mistakes let us down, all three of Lokomotiv's goals were scored because of our errors. Teams like Lokomotiv like to wait for our mistakes, so if we don't commit them, we will win. This is something which we've already proved.

- Igor Ozhiganov scored on his birthday. How did you congratulate him?

- We congratulated him in the dressing room. We're starting with a clean slate now, this game will serve as a big lesson for us. I'm sure that our guys will react in the right way. Our team is young, we don't have such experienced players like Sergei Andronov of Lokomotiv. We want our young players to win these games and perform better at faceoffs. It certainly won't get easier for us in this league!

- Yaroslavl's fans were hoping to see Matvei Michkov on the ice.

- Can you imagine Michkov or Dmitry Buchelnikov competing in duels against Andronov? They only weigh around 75 kilograms, there's a risk of them receiving injuries. We need honest aggressive ice hockey, this is what we are striving for. I would like to say that it's great that the stadium was sold out today, Yaroslavl is a true hockey town with excellent facilities. Children's ice hockey is developing here too. It's an honour to play at this arena with these supporters, they roar their team won. We won our first match here this season, but it's tough with the ice measuring 28 meters instead of 26.

- Who will take Bardakov's place in the line-up? Nikolai Prokhorkin, perhaps?

- In an ideal world, Prokhorkin, Zykov and other injured guys such as Mikhail Pashnin would have played today, but that isn't the case. Thankfully, players like Danila Moiseev can play down the middle if required. We won't reveal too much, as we want to surprise the opponents in our next game!

- Lokomotiv won practically all of the neutral pucks.

- We need to analyse the footage of this match and see what happened. To be honest, the bigger ice took its toll, you have to make four steps instead of two. We actually played better today than in the first game here in Yaroslavl, but the result isn't in our favour. We had a few chances to equalise at 1:2, Mikhail Vorobyov was 1-on-1 at one point. On a positive note, we coped with Lokomotiv's powerplay successfully. You will see a different SKA on Saturday!