SKA - Severstal. Press-conference

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

“Everyone really enjoyed this match! Both teams played brilliantly to score a combined total of 13 goals. We have to give credit to Severstal, they play modern, exciting ice hockey. It was difficult for our guys to compete against such a quick team. Our players are physically stronger, but Severstal move excellently. If we speak about our performance, I liked how we played in the maiden two periods, but not in the third. Nevertheless, the main thing is that we emerged victorious.

“Tony DeAngelo made his debut? Let’s talk about Andrei Pedan too, who dished out four assists! Tony also contributed greatly to our triumph, he played for the benefit of the team and blocked a few shots. Our team – including Tony and Andrei – boasts huge potential. You haven’t seen our best game yet!

“We don’t have any information concerning Evgeny Kuznetsov yet, other than that he has gone to hospital. We’re waiting for his diagnosis. The situation concerning Emil Galimov? This is a question for the KHL. As we can see, far too many talented players are being left without clubs because of the league’s new regulations. Until we find him a new team, Emil will train and play for our VHL team SKA-Neva.

“Artemiy Pleshkov has replaced Nikita Serebryakov as our starting goaltender? Competition drives progression. I’m happy with how both of our goalkeepers played today.”

HC SKA defenseman Tony DeAngelo:

“Severstal play well with the puck on their sticks, they’re a quality side. We had prepared well and followed the game plan. We forced Severstal to lose the puck, which allowed us to catch them on the break. We scored on the transition and punished them for their errors.

“I feel great overall, my legs grew into the match. I hadn’t played for a while, so I was really happy to take to the ice and compete at home. The differences between the NHL and KHL? Over in the NHL, we don’t have ultra fans like you do here in Russia. Those guys were really loud throughout the entire match, they constantly made noise instead of waiting for us to give them reasons to cheer.”

HC SKA defenseman Andrei Pedan:

“My four assists? It’s nothing special, my teammates simply took advantage of their opportunities when I was on the ice. The most important thing for me is the team result.

“Why did we struggle during the first knockings of the opening frame? We committed mistakes and didn’t capitalise on our chances. However, we have superb players in our team who can take advantage of any given opportunity – and they did just that later on in the game. We began to start shooting the puck better while blocking the goalkeeper’s view, simple things which made the difference.

“I played against DeAngelo at junior level in North America? Yes, I remember playing against him there. I know just how difficult it is to move to a different country and adapt to a new culture, but we speak English well in our team and we’ll make sure that he adapts quickly.”

HC Severstal Cherepovets head coach Andrei Kozyrev:

“We started the match well, putting neat combination plays together and scoring great goals. Unfortunately, though, we subsequently made too many mistakes against a powerful SKA team. The difference between SKA and us is that they are better at capitalising on their opportunities.

“They key moment? SKA’s third goal. As we can see, our results haven’t been great recently, however we must remember that we were playing against strong opponents. Even though we lost today, there was a clear structure to our game and created plenty of big chances.

“17-year-old Makar Fomin is receiving a lot of minutes? He possesses fantastic skills. Joseph Duszak? He doesn’t have a full understanding of our system yet, but that’s normal because he’s only recently arrived here. Joseph is currently in the process of getting to understand how we play ice hockey.”