Roman Rotenberg speaks after beating Vityaz in Balashikha

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- In Yaroslavl, we had agreed with the guys that we were going to continue playing the same way as we did in the third period against Lokomotiv. We wanted to play the entire 60 minutes at our level. The guys did a good job, they responded. This is a step forward for us. We'll continue to work, we have an important home series ahead of us. We will work on all of the details and our system. The difference today was our special teams, we scored goals on the powerplay and didn't concede when shorthanded. We were watertight in defence and scored beautiful goals in attack. Nevertheless, there were mistakes too. I would like to thank our fans who travelled here to support us, we really appreciate it. I hope that everyone enjoyed the game.

- Valentin Zykov, your only right-handed forward, is playing on the crease when on the powerplay instead of on the left wing. Why?

- We have tried playing with Zykov on the left faceoff circle. However, he is great at blocking the goalkeeper's view, so that's why we put him there. He prevented the goaltender from seeing the puck for Marat Khairullin's goals. Taking into account that the opponents are always analysing how we play, we have to come up with new options.

- Before his goal, Alex Grant swapped places with Alexander Nikishin. Was this to confuse the opponents?

- You have to move well when on the powerplay. Any player can be in any position. The main thing is to block the goalkeeper's view, this is something which we didn't do well in Yaroslavl. We made him the hero of the match. All we needed to do was win the battles on the crease and to not allow him to skate off his line, nowadays goaltenders are great at narrowing the angle.

- SKA played with freedom today. Has the pressure gone after the defeat in Yaroslavl?

- Our task is to always improve. For us, the next match is always the most important one. Furthermore, given that the ice is 28 meters here just like in Yaroslavl, today we had adapted to the rink size. In Saint Petersburg, the rink is 26 meters. Overall, we were better tactically and in our execution in this match than against Lokomotiv. All opponents are strong, Vityaz have a great coaching line-up with Vyacheslav Butsaev working as their boss.

- Will SKA improve further in the next game on Wednesday?

- Our philosophy is to become better everyday. We played with discipline today, but we can't relax. As the great Viktor Tikhonov once said, you simply have to continue working hard and playing in a disciplined manner. Yes, it sounds simple, but it requires a lot of time and effort. Everyone is contributing to our victories. In every game, we have to work harder than the opponents. Our ruthlessness in front of goal depends on our own discipline, we have to treat every scoring chance very seriously. We did make some mistakes today, our forwards lost the puck at the blue line. We will improve our performance level.

- Why did you use Marat Khusnutdinov on the left flank?

- We're working with Marat a lot, searching for how we can improve his game in terms of his psychology, his commitment and his ruthlessness in front of goal. The fact that Marat can play everywhere on the ice is a great advantage for us! In our previous match in Yaroslavl, he almost intercepted the pass which resulted in Lokomotiv's opening goal when they had a 2-on-1. He can play either on the powerplay or when shorthanded. When he played for SKA, Joonas Kemppainen said that Marat is the most intelligent Russian player he knows.

- Does Khusnutdinov remind you of Sergei Fyodorov at all?

- If I'm honest, he reminds me more of Vyacheslav Bykov. By the way, Bykov played a big role in the development of SKA, I consider him to be one of my teachers. Marat can use Bykov's example and work hard on becoming better. In order to become successful, young players need to become strong physically. Kirill Kaprizov is an example of someone who achieved this, he trained hard every summer instead of resting. During the off-season, you have to work with a personal trainer instead of flying away on holiday. I saw Kaprizov do this, and now he is one of the world's best players.

- Have you received a response from the KHL concerning the injury suffered by Zakhar Bardakov in Yaroslavl?

- The whole team played for Zakhar today. We have a few injured players at the moment, Kirill Tankov won't be able to play for the year as a consequence of his injury. I don't even want to say what could have happened to Zakhar in our last game. Perhaps we need to do what the NHL does, with the gates alongside the boards not allowed to be opened when the play is ongoing. Only the Lokomotiv employee knows whether he kept the gate open on purpose, we can only analyse the footage. In any case, the consequences could have been terrible. Thankfully, Zakhar is alive and he's recovering. It's a serious injury, so he will miss the next month's worth of action. We wish him a speedy recovery! Hopefully, the KHL will change the rules so that this doesn't happen again. We're waiting for their response.