SKA - Barys. Press-conference

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- We followed the game plan and were solid in defence. Our guys on the PK did a great job and competed with commitment, but our discipline must improve. We didn't give Barys many scoring chances when they were on the powerplay. I liked how we played in attack, we had energy. We will now prepare for Friday.

- What did you make of 18-year-old forward Amir Nugmanov's debut?

- Both Amir and Ivan Remezovsky were excellent. For Amir's penalty in the second stanza, he should have made one more step forward before connecting with the opponent. It was a technical mistake which we committed because of his huge desire. Amir always competes with aggression and desire, he's a physical player who wins a lot of neutral pucks. He's a right-handed forward with a superb shot.

- SKA became the first KHL club in history to earn 400 home victories.

- This a big achievement for SKA and all of the club's employees who work tirelessly 24/7. They take on new challenges and work with honesty. It's always vital to be first in all aspects, we're striving to be better than our opponents. We're only just getting started.

- Barys registered more shots on target than SKA. Why?

- We must look into who allowed them to shoot so often. Nevertheless, quality is always more important that quantity.

- Teenage forward Ivan Demidov scored five goals against Amurskie Tigry Khabarovsk in the MHL this evening.

- The task for SKA-1946 is to win the Kharlamov Cup. Of course, we're happy that the team is performing successfully, but we want to see these results against the top clubs such as Yaroslavl, CSKA Moscow and Dynamo. If we look at Nugmanov and Demidov, then we can see that they are two completely different players with their own separate qualities. Due to the fact that all SKA teams use the same system, it's easy for any player to come into the senior side. Remezovsky is a perfect example of this. Hopefully, Ivan will also pick up as many points when playing against a leading MHL team.

HC Barys Astana interim head coach Oleg Bolyakin:

- I would like to congratulate SKA with their victory. They're a strong, mobile and well-drilled side. SKA effectively took advantage of our mistakes to score their goals, but we couldn't do the same. I think that our players worked well throughout the maiden two periods, however they moved away from the game plan in the third. They stopped closing down the free space.

HC SKA forward Arseniy Gritsyuk:

- It's great that we won. We immediately set a high tempo in the opening frame, but then our penalties in the second interrupted our rhythm. I registered five points? I can't remember the last time when this happened! Will this landslide victory make us feel too relaxed? No, not at all, we know who we will play against in our upcoming matches.