Roman Rotenberg speaks after beating Dynamo in Moscow

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- I would like to congratulate everyone with the victory! We're running out of gas, but we found our reserves. The guys showed their spirit to win, even though we conceded two cheap goals. We have beaten a very serious opponent today, they have a strong team and coaching staff. We knew that it would be difficult, but we found our reserves to win. Our players followed the game plan. We will now prepare for our upcoming games, they won't be any easier.

- What can you say about the decision to put Damir Zhafyarov in a line with Dmitrij Jaskin and Mikhail Vorobyov?

- We had tried this option out when playing Lokomotiv in Yaroslavl. We are acting in accordance with the situation on the ice in order to improve. The opponents are strong, they constantly hit our players so we had to find options in order to take our game to the next level. Thank God we found the required options. This result is down to the players' efforts, we found the way to win. We will continue working.

- It didn't take long today for you to start changing the lines.

- Everyone in our team contributed to the overall effort. Since the pre-season, we have been working in accordance to our system and are continuing to do so. The guys are supporting each other within the group. We were put in a difficult situation today, the opponents were certainly fresher than us during the first period. However, we found the required strength to turn the game around. We committed a mistake for the second conceded goal, but we continued working on the ice and scored a backhander for our third marker. We always like to surprise the opponents with our unpredictable play. Our next game will take place on Sunday, there we have to recharge our batteries because we are running out of strength. Thank you to the team for finding the reserves today, this is a major victory for us.

- You say that SKA are running out of gas, but you have recently been turning games around. Does this speak volumes about the players' excellent physical condition? And how can you maintain this for the whole season?

- We have to continue training hard and play with discipline. We're only at the start of our journey, we have to turn around any tough situation which we find ourselves in over the course of the campaign. We are laying the foundations. Ahead of every match, we prepare in a very serious manner. Alongside our solid physical condition, we have a friendly atmosphere in our team and our psychology is good. Nonetheless, we committed a lot of mistakes today, something which you cannot do against such strong opponents. We must improve with every game.

- After two shifts in the first period, defenseman Mikhail Pashnin didn't return to the game.

- There were a lot of physical battles on the ice today. It's great when you play in such a physical match without any dirty plays. We haven't spoken with our medical team yet, so we don't know the diagnosis.

- Did you expect Dynamo to put the inexperienced Konstantin Volkov in net?

- We know Volkov well, he is a good goalkeeper. We knew that he earned a shutout in Dynamo's last match, we always study our opponents and watch all of their games.

- Alex Grant played instead of Daniil Pylenkov today. Was that a planned move, or did you make that decision after the match in Yaroslavl on Wednesday?

- We are always playing together as a team. We never like to point out certain players, mistakes are a result of the team's overall work. Taking into account that we knew we would find it difficult physically today, we wanted fresh players on the ice. This was a planned move because we always like to play energy-sapping ice hockey. We play to win every game!

- You have previously stated that you work on backhand shots during training sessions. As a consequence of that, you probably weren't surprised by Dmitrij Jaskin's backhander in the third frame?

- It's one thing training shots like that, but it is another executing in actual matches. Dmitrij does a lot for our team. If we look back at our previous match in Yaroslavl, he took a Lokomotiv player out of the game with a block, a move which allowed Damir Zhafyarov to make the pass for our winning goal. Dmitrij plays brilliantly without the puck, and today he scored a very important goal for us. Moreover, goalkeepers find it very difficult to save shots in the style of Pavel Datsyuk. The KHL hadn't seen a goal like that for a long time!

- At the start of the season, Artyom Fyodorov was in the first line, but now he is only in the fourth and was taken out of the game after Dynamo's opening goal. What are you not satisfied with?

- I don't have any issues with our players. Artyom is working hard at our training sessions, he's doing a lot of good things on the ice for our team. We had to search for different options in this particular match. He is a good player, and the KHL doesn't have many right-handed forwards. We appreciate having him in our team.

- The end of September is the deadline which Nikita Gusev set for signing with an NHL club. Are SKA negotiating with him?

- Nikita has done a lot of great things for our ice hockey, we just have to remember the 2018 Olympic Games. We respect and appreciate Nikita, we are always in contact. Hopefully, everything will work out. That's all I can say.