Roman Rotenberg speaks after beating Severstal in Cherepovets

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- It was a hard-fought game. Cherepovets is a true hockey town, the fans love the sport here. Taking into account that Severstal are fighting for a berth in the Gagarin Cup playoffs, we expected it be a tough match. I am pleased with our guys, they displayed great commitment and character. This is a true team win. However, we have to start taking advantage of the numerous scoring advantages which we're creating. We aren't blocking the goalkeeper's view enough. It's a really important win for us, Severstal produced an impressive performance. Thank you to our fans who travelled here to Cherepovets, their fantastic support provided us with the required energy!

- Why did you pick Vladislav Podyapolsky? Was it because he used to play for Cherepovets?

- No, we had already planned for him to participate in this game. We need to thank our goalkeeping coaches who are working really hard to make sure that our goaltenders are developing. We saw Vladislav's progression today, he made a huge contribution to our win. We have two strong goalkeepers in our team, and it's important that we have healthy competition within the side.

- Are your players struggling to find motivation at the moment?

- No, not at all! We are always competing with motivation and desire. Nonetheless, we have to work our discipline, as we're committing too many fouls. We can clearly see this in today's game. Among all of the teams who are in qualification spots, we have taken more penalty minutes than anyone else. This isn't acceptable at all. We only have 14 matches left before the playoffs, and we must bear this in mind. We have to make less mistakes and display our brand of ice hockey. In future games, we want to use more of our scoring chances so that we can win matches more convincingly. We have things to improve.