Roman Rotenberg speaks after game six against CSKA

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- Both teams played with fire in their eyes. We wanted to win, but we had a poor start. CSKA were excellent in defence, they didn't allow us to score our goals. I would like to congratulate CSKA with their qualification for the final. A lot of our players were born in either 2001 or 2002, they hadn't played in the semi-finals of the playoffs previously. We will strengthen the team ahead of next season. Overall, it was a great season for us, we won the Continental Cup and qualified for the final of the Western Conference again. We will try to take the next step in the 2023/2024 campaign.

- SKA took three penalties in the third period and registered fewer shots on goal than CSKA, even though you required goals.

- We are playing as well as the opponents allow us to. I won't comment on the penalties, that's the referees' job. Throughout the entire campaign, teams have been competing in a physical manner against us, several players were ruled out until the end of the season. Kirill Tankov almost died on the ice, while Danila Moiseev and Artyom Shvets-Rogovoi were put on the sidelines. Furthermore, Dmitrij Jaskin received a very serious injury against Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, and he was only able to participate in this series as a consequence of injections. He signed for us last season after he had received a terrible injury for Arizona in the NHL. We did everything we could, but we know how to improve in the future. I don't have any issues with any of our guys.

- SKA have lost to CSKA six seasons in a row in this stage of the competition. Why?

- This was my second series against CSKA as SKA head coach. We saw an improvement this year. CSKA have an experienced team, and you can't afford to present them with scoring opportunities. Their players are vastly experienced having played in the NHL and the Olympic Games. CSKA's core has been together for several years, but their time at the top is gradually coming to its end. On the other hand, our time is only just beginning. CSKA have been creating this current team for more than five years. In terms of their system, nothing has changed since Dmitry Kvartlanov managed the team years ago. They work like clockwork. In this series, we lost out in terms of the duels and stick handling. We shouldn't have allowed them to get their sticks on shots from the point, this is their speciality. Before the season began, a lot of journalists thought that SKA were going to struggle, but we proved that we can be successful with our exciting brand of ice hockey. We've got a team with young Russian players, those from Belarus and Czech citizen Dmitrij Jaskin. We won the Continental Cup and KHL bronze, but we want to improve in the upcoming seasons. I would also like to thank our fans for their wonderful support, they've been everywhere with us this season. For the first time since 2018, SKA have won a trophy. We are hungry to win the Gagarin Cup again.

- Will you continue working as SKA's head coach?

- We are all continuing to work together. I would like to thank Gazprom and Alexei Miller for the support, they are showing their faith in me. All opponents are strong in the playoffs, we managed to defeat Dinamo Minsk and Nizhny Novgorod in challenging series. We have achieved positive results.

- Why did Vladislav Podyapolsky play instead of Dmitry Nikolaev?

- I won't reveal all of the details, but Nikolaev had serious injury problems before the campaign began. Dmitry is only 23 years of age. A club once tried to sign him in North America, but we managed to keep him here. He's progressed through our system. In the playoffs, physical shape is incredibly important, especially when facing CSKA. The level of the top KHL games is the same as the NHL.