SKA - Dynamo Moscow. Press-conference

HC Dynamo Moscow senior head coach Yury Babenko:

- We were a united group today. Our head coach is in a tough situation, we only found out the news directly before the match. The guys wanted to give Vladimir Krikunov some positive emotions. Yes, there were mistakes, but we fixed them and won. We are satisfied with the result.

- Was this Dmitry Kagarlitsky's best performance after returning to your team?

- He played well, his line scored important goals. I think that this was one of his best matches, Dmitry moved well and created opportunities. Hopefully, this will give him confidence. The fact that we were playing in Saint Petersburg gave him extra motivation too. Nevertheless, we still want a lot more from him.

Interim SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- We started well today, the opening 40 minutes were good. However, in the process, we did make a lot of individual mistakes while losing possession. We need to be understanding of the situation, the players were at home for two weeks. We as coaches also needed to do more. The fans are supporting us, and we will continue improving with every passing game. We only had enough energy for one period against Sochi, but today we had strength for two periods. I am confident that we will start to begin to play for the full 60 minutes again.

- Valery Bragin was at the Ice Palace today. When will he be on the bench again?

- The doctors understand what complications can occur after the illness itself has passed. Valery is being monitored every day, but he isn't ready to be on the bench yet. We are speaking via video call all of the time. We're hoping that he will return soon, but it all depends on the doctors. Some of our players and coaches are still ill, however we do hope that they will all be back next week. Many have complications with their lungs, it's important to not take any risks.

- Mikhail Berdin has played in eight consecutive matches. Why aren't other goalkeepers playing?

- Six goalkeepers are currently ill. 60 players of our system were all ill at the same time. Mikhail is trying his best in every game, we don't have any problems with his performances. We win and lose as a team. I think that we have a good amount of points at the moment, and we want to win against Sochi and CSKA Moscow on the road. Of course, our players need to improve, but they couldn't train for two weeks and a lot of our younger guys were also ill. Today, I am pleased with our commitment and desire, soon we will see a SKA team which can play for the entire 60 minutes again. We competed at a high tempo for 40 minutes today, but we didn't have enough for the third period.

- Why didn't you pull the goalkeeper for the last powerplay today?

- We wanted to score 5 on 4. Unfortunately, we couldn't do that. We didn't shoot enough on the powerplay today, we were lacking aggression. Thank you to the fans inside the Ice Palace for the wonderful support today!