SKA - Severstal. Press-conference

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- I would like to point out that fantastic atmosphere inside the Ice Palace! Thank you to all of the fans who came here to support us. We are showing excellent ice hockey at certain periods of our matches, but we need to play well across the entire 60 minutes. Today, we did manage to play a complete game. Yes, there are things to work on, but today the team was born again. We have a tough schedule, we'll train tomorrow before leaving for Khabarovsk at 9 am on Friday.

- 20-year-old goalkeeper Artemiy Pleshkov made his competitive debut for SKA today.

- This is a team win. I have long been tracking Pleshkov's progress, I watched his matches for Kapitan Stupino in the MHL with my own eyes. He's a great goalkeeper, I think that you all saw that for yourselves today. It's pleasing that a lot of unique goaltenders are moving through the ranks in Russia. Nevertheless, this was only one game, and we'll have a conversation with the goalkeeping coach about who plays on Saturday. Pleshkov contribute greatly to our victory today, we're hoping that he will continue working in this manner. He is burning with desire, and it rubs off on both his teammates and the fans!

- It was a tense game until Alexander Nikishin's goal. Did you breathe a sigh of relief when he scored?

- As the head coach, I always need to think about the next shift. In comparison to last season, a lot of periods of our games are actually better this time around, but we must continue working hard without paying attention to emotional moments. Vladimir Alistrov made a large contribution to our win, he made the vital breakthrough and provided an important assist for our third marker. We're happy that the players are taking responsibility.

- Why didn't Arseniy Gritsyuk take to the ice in the third period?

- Arseniy received plenty of minutes in our preceding games. I noticed that his physical condition wasn't the best, and in such cases the risk of sustaining injuries is much higher.

- Alexander Kadeikin is the new SKA captain. Why did you make this decision?

- We had long wanted to sign Alexander, he previously won the Gagarin Cup with us in 2015. Back then, we didn't actually want to trade him, but the circumstances worked out like this. I didn't make that particular decision. I've always wanted to bring him back to SKA, and I had the desire to make him captain. We 100% trusted Marat Khairullin as captain, but life dictates its own path. It's difficult to carry the weight of being SKA's captain, but Alexander is a true team player who can unite the group. He fully fulfilled that role today.

- The first line consisting of Sergei Tolchinsky, Kadeikin and Alex Galchenyuk seemed to dominate out there.

- You can see that all three of them boast huge potential. Kadeikin is only just getting back to his best shape following an operation, while Galchenyuk is continuing to rapidly adapt to the KHL. Tolchinsky is a clever, creative player who was previously the most valuable player of Gagarin Cup playoffs a couple of years ago. They played well today, but this is far from what they are actually capable of.

- You will soon fly to the Far East to play Amur Khabarovsk, Admiral Vladivostok and Sibir Novosibirsk.

- We will analyse the video footage and prepare for the games. To be honest, I was up to 5 am after our opening home match last week, analysing how we can improve and win in our subsequent fixtures. You have to love ice hockey and give everything to the sport in order to be successful. In terms of the trip, we're used to living in planes, it's been like this since the start of the season. I'm sure that we will see plenty of SKA supporters in these three cities, and that the arenas will be sold out.

HC Severstal Cherepovets head coach Andrei Kozyrev:

- In comparison to our last game, we produced a better performance today. We put together nice combination plays and created lots of big chances, which we sadly failed to capitalise on. The decisive moment was our disallowed goal at the start of the third period.

- You really did struggle to even stay in SKA's zone while competing on the powerplay.

- Our PP units didn't work today. Firstly SKA were solid on the PK, and secondly we didn't play in an organised manner.

- Daniil Vovchenko returned to the line-up today after missing your previous two matches.

- I am pleased with how the entire team played today. About Vovchenko, then he could have played better. We hit the pipe on several occasions? We were a bit unlucky there.

- Vasily Shumilov is in your top defensive partnership, despite this being his maiden KHL campaign.

- Vasily is a talented guy. We trust our young players, this is the direction in which we're moving. As a consequence of us giving them game time, they're gaining in confidence and can feel that we believe in them. I've known Shumilov from my time with the national team set-up. Other young players from our youth team will also receive an opportunity to play at this level.

HC SKA forward Vladimir Alistrov:

- It was an entertaining game today, the fans had long been waiting for us to score plenty of goals! The main thing is that we won, and I also think that we played well. I've adapted to playing for SKA quickly? This is all down to the coaches and my teammates who have allowed for this to happen.

HC SKA forward Semyon Sinyatkin:

- We played well today, but I think that we can improve further. We're improving with every passing game.