Roman Rotenberg speaks after game three against Torpedo

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- It was a hard-fought playoff game against a strong opponent. There was a fantastic atmosphere inside the arena, Nizhny Novgorod have great fans. I would also like to thank our supporters for making the trip here. We took too many penalties today, this is something which we will look into. Nevertheless, our guys did a superb job on the PK, two of our goals were scored shorthanded. We played aggressively at neutral ice. We will now focus on the next match.

- After conceding four goals on Saturday, how did you manage to earn a clean sheet today?

- We played well in defence and competed with commitment. Our system is based around having five players in attack and five in defence. When Torpedo did create chances, Dmitry Nikolaev was brilliant in our net.

- SKA are continuing to struggle on the powerplay. What needs to change?

- Well, at least we scored when playing shorthanded! We lost rhythm as a consequence of playing shorthanded on a regular basis. Our discipline must improve, we need to work harder with our legs in order to avoid taking penalties.

- Dmitrij Jaskin was watching from the stands. Is his absence affecting your team?

- Yes, of course it is. However, in such a situation, all of our other guys should rise to new levels. We are waiting for Dmitrij in game four. Our Tatar players scored? We have players representing plenty of different nationalities! This is a team win today, we're not going to single anyone out. We played and won for our captain.

- For your third goal on the PK which turned out to be decisive, did you try and catch Torpedo on the counter?

- Counter-attacks while competing shorthanded are a part of modern ice hockey. Both in the KHL and the NHL, we're seeing a lot of shorthanded goals being scored. Torpedo do have a strong powerplay, but our guys did a wonderful job when playing on the PK.

- How successfully did Emil Galimov replace Jaskin in the first line?

- He had a lot of chances. Emil twice tried to allow Nikita Gusev to score into the empty net, but the Torpedo goaltender made tough saves for his team. Emil has improved this season, and he scored an important goal in the second match of this series when cutting sharply to the crease. His shot high into the right corner was perfect. Everyone is working for the benefit of the team, but we must stop taking so many penalties. This is what's worrying me.

- When your players scored, you seemed to make gestures towards the Torpedo bench.

- Ice hockey is a game of emotions, you can't play without them. It was my fist of victory! Why do you think that I signalled the gesture in the direction of Torpedo's bench? I was simply expressing my emotions. When we score we should be happy, not upset! In order to score our goals, we have undertaken a lot of hard work. Furthermore, we have to bear in mind that we missed a lot of big chances to score even more goals.

- You were 3:0 up going into the latter stages of the third period, but Arseniy Koromyslov and Vladislav Tsitsyura weren't used.

- Vladislav was on the ice for a couple of shifts. It was a difficult game which was contested at a high pace, only our strongest players are on the ice.

- Taking into account that you are leading the series 3-0, will you experiment with your line-up on Wednesday?

- No. In the past, we managed to win a series 4-3 after initially trailing 0-3. We aren't relaxing at all. For us, the most important game is the next one. We must make improvements to our game.

- How does Alexander Nikishin feel now?

- Everyone is playing to the limit. Alexander is fine. This is the playoffs. There was a lot of blood on the ice today, Igor Ozhiganov received a painful face injury during the third period. In ice hockey, you have to play with maximum concentration for the entire match.