SKA - Kunlun Red Star. Press-conference

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- We had prepared seriously for this match. We knew that the opponents would try to provoke us a lot, they had promised us this in Mytishchi when we played them in September. They compete in a Canadian style. As we like to say in our dressing room, they are Canadian hooligans from Mytishchi. We expected a tough game, our task was to reply to their provocations with goals. We needed to improve for the third period, and we did. You saw just how their players competed against our guys, they were really physical. When teams throw themselves on you, it's difficult to play ice hockey. I hope that the professionals will look into this. After a serious conversation with the team in the second break, we played excellently in the third period. The guys responded. This is a really important win for us, and we'll now prepare for the next match.

- Although they're underdogs, Kunlun are playing well this season. How did you prepare for this game?

- Ahead of this game, we spoke with Vladimir Yurzinov. When you play against a team like Kunlun, you have to win the duels across the ice and on the slot. They play in a physical manner. It was a tough test for us today, games like this allow us to develop.

- How surprised were you to see Alexander Nikishin drop the gloves and participate in a fight?

- All of Kunlun's players wanted to fight him. In our last game against Kunlun in Mytishchi, he had landed a hit against an opponent. Alexander won the fight. In the future, though, we need to ignore the opponents when they try to provoke us. Opposing teams are coming for our best players, so we have to be more clever and not bow down to their provocation.

- What went wrong for SKA in the opening two frames?

- We conceded cheap goals. Kunlun have a Canadian coach and they play in the Canadian way, a lot of their players are from North America. We will improve. All teams want to beat us, they're producing their best performances against SKA. We don't need to shoot ourselves in the foot. Instead, we have to compete with discipline, short shifts and great effort. I would like to thank the fans for their fantastic support today.

- In your opinion, which moment of this game was key?

- When Marat Khusnutdinov scored in the third period.

HC Kunlun Red Star head coach Greg Ireland:

- It's a very disappointing loss for us, we gave ourselves a chance to win. It was a tense match. I have to give credit to our guys, they tried hard and I'm proud of them. This is a tough defeat, but we worked well today.

- Kunlun's best performances this season are against the KHL's leading teams. Why is this the case?

- I still want more from the team, we're just getting in shape. We are only playing with three lines right now, that's a dangerous game to play. We're starting to understand the system better and we are giving an honest effort. We are not where I want us to be yet, but we're playing better as a team. For us to be able to compete in every game, we need more from everybody. I think that we still have some passengers in our team, and a couple of good players are currently out injured. We need some more depth for our top lines, this will make us a better team.

- How surprised have you been by Brandon Yip's performances?

- I knew what a competitor and smart player Brandon is, he takes a lot of pride in being the leader of this team and keeping this group together. It's no surprise for us, but it's nice to see his leadership.

- Kunlun played well today, but you are still near the bottom of the table.

- This team finished at the bottom last year. At one point I think they lost 22 games, they didn't win anything after December. I wasn't here, so I don't know what happened. It's a slow process for us, we don't have a budget like SKA do. This means that it's difficult for us to sign top players. We had a slow start to our summer training camp, our conditioning levels weren't good. We still haven't figured out the system yet either. At the moment, we're trying to figure out who can play within our system. We're keeping our heads focused, it's a long climb. We don't have consistency, not all of our players are in good form. We have to figure this problem out as a team.

HC SKA forward Damir Zhafyarov:

- It was quite a tough game for us, we're happy that we managed to win. Marat scored a great goal in the third period. We kept the opponents at bay in the closing minutes, the main thing is that we earned the two points. We will now prepare for the upcoming matches.

- What was the toughest part of this game?

- Sometimes matches just don't go your way, regardless of who you're playing against. In any case, we always play to win until the end.

HC SKA forward Marat Khusnutdinov:

- It turned out to be a tough game. Kunlun do have quality players in their squad, but we took the two points. We played as a united group and won the match.

- What was the most difficult aspect of this game?

- Kunlun kept it simple in their zone, chucking the puck clear. We had to skate a lot, and we didn't sit back. One mistake was going to decide the outcome. Thankfully, we scored important goals and held on in the closing shifts.