Game one. SKA - Dinamo Minsk. Press-conference

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- We had long been preparing for this game. The guys did a good job, they followed our tactical plan. We have things to work over, though, so we will now prepare for the next match.

- Could the players become complacent as a result of having scored eight goals this evening?

- We spoke about this after the second period. Everything is only just beginning, and the second game will be more difficult than the first. We need to take advantage of our opportunities at equal strength and play better in defence. We'll analyse all of the details.

- Nikita Gusev registered six points today. How would you summarise his performance?

- First of all, this is a team win. We executed the game plan. This is only the start for us, we're already now thinking about the next match in which we can improve our play across the ice. We have to score more goals and make use of our chances. We need to congratulate Nikita today, it was a record-breaking performance.

- Your powerplay was fantastic.

- Since the start of the Olympic break, we have been working really hard concerning our tactics, our physical condition and our mental readiness. Naturally, we also worked on our powerplay. We will improve our penalty kill and our play at equal strength. I would like to thank our fans for their phenomenal support today, we can't wait to see everyone again on Friday! We saw a true celebration of sport at the Ice Palace.

HC Dinamo Minsk head coach Craig Woodcroft:

- We had a pretty good first period, but I was sad to see us give that up in the second. We went away from what we need to do in order to be successful in this series, taking too many penalties and committing turnovers. We knew that SKA have a good powerplay, and we shot ourselves in the foot. I think that we regrouped in the third period, playing our game and competing in a more solid manner. This game is behind us, it's irrelevant if you lose 2:3, 3:4 or 3:8. We did win the first and third frames today, now we have to work on the second. That's on us, we did that to ourselves tonight. You cannot do that against a team like SKA.

- Dinamo Minsk only participated in two friendly matches before the playoffs, and one of them was against a team from the Belarusian league. Has this affected you?

- I don't want to use that as an excuse. However, some of these other teams have played six or seven exhibition games, whereas we basically played in one. This is something which we have to deal with. I thought that we did a good job of keeping it simple and feeling our way into proceedings in the first period, but then we looked rusty and sloppy. This is perhaps a knock-on effect of a lack of games during the KHL break.

- Why did the second period go so wrong?

- What can I say...it was a bit of rustiness and sloppiness on our part. We knew what we needed to do in that second period, but we didn't execute. We will have to evaluate this and bounce back.

- In the regular season, Dinamo improved after an initial slow start. Can we expect this to repeat itself in the Gagarin Cup playoffs? And what will you focus on for Friday?

- I want our team to respond in the right manner on Friday. We're prepared for this series, so we don't have to learn anything. The second period today showed what will happen if we move away from what we need to do. We have to engage mentally and compete for the full 60 minutes, you can't take shifts off and have a bad five minutes because this opponent is dangerous. We know that. We did this to ourselves in the second period, but I expect us to bounce and fight back. We have to correct our mistakes and perform better.

- How does Ilya Usov feel after his fight in the third period?

- I'm sure that he feels fine, he's a competitive guy. Ilya wanted to make an effect on the game and chose to do it in that manner. He's a 20-year-old guy who is making his mark on the KHL, he is an excellent player and a tough competitor. I am happy that he got engaged and showed that we are a team of character.

- Why did you pull goalkeeper Patrik Rybar in the second stanza? He wasn't really to blame for SKA's goals.

- We don't blame him for anything. We weren't playing well enough in front of him, and we wanted to protect his confidence. At the same time, we tried to shake the team. He was left out to dry in the second period.

- Did you leave Rinat Valiev and Denis Mosalyov out of the squad because of rotation? And will we see Lukas Bengtsson in the next games?

- I don't think that we'll see Lukas in this series. As for our line-up, I think that you can expect to see some changes in game two.