SKA - Jokerit. Press-conference

HC Jokerit Helsinki head coach Erkka Westerlund:

- I congratulate SKA with a good victory. The best team won today. The second period was awful from us, and afterwards we couldn't rehabilitate.

- Riku Helenius didn't have his best game. What can we expect in the next match?

- Riku shows the same level of hockey as the rest of the team in the second period. We have two strong goaltenders, and we have no plan for as to how they will play. They are both at the same level.

HC SKA head coach Andrei Nazarov:

- Congratulations to our guys for the win. They fought and did a great job. It was our fifth game having come off a tough away trip, and again we were playing against a strong opponent. We played the right way in the first period, that frame was probably the hardest - our legs were heavy in this fifth game. Nevertheless in the second we got going again, and everything went well. Maybe luck was on our side too. In the third period we played the game out. I'm happy that we won, and now we will rest and prepare for future matches.

- From the opening faceoff Jokerit provoked Ilya Ezhov and all of your players. Was it hard to keep the team's emotions under control?

- Two top clubs were playing against each other today, there was no provocation - both simply wanted to win. Everyone wanted a victory, has ambitions, and crashed the net. I don't see anything wrong with that.

- Speak about the first line's performance.

- That is a bit of a provocative question. The team won. Often the team wins, and the coaches lose. I always try to take all the responsibility for defeats, and let the players take the glory when they win.

- Would you agree that this was one of the best matches so far attacking wise?

- I will reply from a coach's point of view. Yes, for the fans the game is always more interesting when there are more goals. But there were mistakes in defence that could have cost us in the end, even when we were on the powerplay. Maybe this was because of tiredness. I think about mistakes, but we play for the fans and we try to make them happy every match.

- Anton Burdasov had a fantastic game today. Has chemistry appeared in his line?

- I'm not going to say anything. Let them make the supporters happy.

- Are the team making jokes about Pyotr Khokhryakov's goalless streak?

- Pyotr is trying, and he is one of our key players when on the penalty kill. I haven't given him a task to score, although if he scores it will be good. His main task however is to successfully kill penalties.