SKA - Dynamo Moscow. Press-conference

HC Dynamo Moscow head coach Harijs Vītoliņš:

- I would like to thank our fans who came here to support us. You always need your fans when playing against an opponent with a sold out arena. About the game - the guys did a good job, fought with spirit, and created a lot of chances. We scored and held on. We knew that Saint Petersburg are good at home, especially in third periods. We held on as a result of our character.

- How did you analyse SKA's game? What are Saint Petersburg's problems?

- We prepared seriously - I won't go into details. We did what we wanted to. The only thing which we didn't cope with was their powerplay. We discussed how SKA play on the powerplay, and they got back into the game as a result of their special teams. We have things to work over.

HC SKA head coach Andrei Nazarov:

- We got ready for the match, but the first goal ruined everything. We tried to find the key to victory, but couldn't do it. We began playing only when three down, and it was too late - we crashed the net, drew penalties out of the opponents and scored on the powerplay. We were unlucky when trying to equalise.

- Defencemen are scoring, but forwards are not. Have you got a solution for this situation?

- These forwards have never scored very much probably. If defencemen score but forwards don't then it's a problem. We'll work on it.

- How would you sum up the first part of the championship?

- Unsatisfactory. We can change all components, starting with the goaltenders, defencemen and forwards who are not scoring.

- You pulled Mikko Koskinen today. What are Ilya Ezhov's chances for the future?

- Mikko is a very strong netminder with a strong background. Something isn't working out yet, but after playing away in the Far East well he performed poorly today. It's hard to speak about Ilya Ezhov directly after this match. In my opinion he was great straight away, and made two big saves when three down to help the team get back into things. He did well. We haven't made a decision about the next game yet or spoke with either goaltender.

- Speak about Dmitry Yudin's 5+20 penalty.

- It was a two minute minor offence at best. Nevetheless I am not happy with the player's actions. There was no injury though, and he simply planted his helmet on the other player's one.

- Your defencemen spent a lot of time inside Dynamo's zone. Was this a planned tactic?

- I don't want to criticize anyone, but our forwards haven't scored in ten games. Everyone needs to look at themselves in the mirror, including me. But when your forwards don't score any goals in ten fixtures, the defencemen lose their patience and want to score themselves. It's not quite right that our top scorers are all defencemen. We need to keep on working as we have qualified players who should score goals. So far something isn't working.