SKA - Spartak. Press-conference of game one

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- The players were prepared, but they appeared to be overcome with the Ice Palace full for the first time since 2020. We had a conversation in the dressing room, the game plan wasn't followed. We're preparing for the next match, you can't win in the playoffs without losing sometimes.

- Mikko Lehtonen and Mat Robinson committed a lot of mistakes.

- They are the leaders of our team. We will talk to them and discuss the reasons behind their performance. Just like everyone else, they had been trying their best in our training sessions. Overall, today just wasn't our day, let's not look for scapegoats. The most important game for us in the next one.

- How did you prepare for the match against a team that had not played for two months?

- We had competed against them three times during the regular season. Unfortunately, our plan for this game wasn't followed. Now it is important to think about the next match, this one is already in the past.

- Several unlucky rebounds resulted in Spartak goals.

- In ice hockey, you have to work hard in order to deserve the luck. We simply made too many mistakes and were made to pay. We will learn from our mistakes and move forward.

- Three goals were scored for Spartak as a result of ricochets off one player. Had this ever happened in your career before?

- Over the course of the past 10 years, I've seen various things happen on the ice. Anything can happen in ice hockey. We recently managed to score seven goals in one period, but today the situation was totally different. We have to learn from our mistakes, try harder and win the next game together.

- What's going on with Lars Johansson?

- You can always look for someone to blame, but we are a united group. All skaters are responsible for our defensive play, you can't blame the goalkeeper. We are preparing for the next game.

- SKA haven't won a single opening period in these playoffs as yet.

- Maybe we will make adjustments to our team. Of course, we are very disappointed that we couldn't make our supporters happy today, this was the maiden match since 2020 when the Ice Palace was able to be sold out. We need to get used to playing in front of a full arena again. Our system brings positive results, we've regularly seen this over the years. We will continue to work hard. We're really grateful to the fans for their wonderful support, hopefully we can bring a smile to their faces on Sunday.

- Why did you pull Johansson after the first period?

- We were looking for a way to win this game until the end. If you noticed, we also made other changes to our line-up during the match. I am confident that we can find the winning formula for Sunday.

- You conceded 40 seconds after scoring your only goal of proceedings.

- We have discussed everything which happened today with the players. Probably, today was our worst match of the campaign. We must compete with more discipline and work harder.

- Is Joonas Kemppainen's absence due to injury?

- Joonas is struggling with an injury after he received a fracture against Sibir Novosibirsk earlier in the KHL season. That's all I can say. We're looking forward to when he returns to the squad, but we can't reveal any secrets about how he feels in terms of this injury.

HC Spartak Moscow head coach Boris Mironov:

- I enjoyed our performance today. Our players were really pumped up, even if we struggled a bit during the opening shifts as a consequence of having not played since January in competitive games. We managed to play with short shifts, score quick goals and calmly see the match out successfully. Nevertheless, we now have to forget this victory and prepare for the next game, we are continuing to work towards our goal. I would like to congratulate our fans with this victory, their support helped us greatly.

- Spartak aren't considered favourites for this series. Does this help you?

- We're trying not to read the media. We were originally planning to face Jokerit Helsinki in the first round of the playoffs, but then the situation changed. Regardless of who the favourite is, you have to go on the ice and play to win. We're not bothered about what the press are saying.

- What is the role of Alexei Zhamnov within your team?

- He is the head coach of the Russian national team who knows all of our players well. We had spoken a lot before this game, he gave us advice and contributed to this win. This is a united group, one for all and all for one.

- No one saw you play for over two months. Did this actually work out in your favour?

- We haven't been hiding from anyone! We have trained as normal. It was a bad thing for us that we didn't play in the opening phase of the playoffs, as we didn't have the opportunity to get in the rhythm of playing in matches. But, despite that issue, today's game proved that we had been preparing in the correct manner. A number of our players received competitive action with our VHL and MHL teams.