SKA - Spartak. Press-conference

HC Spartak Moscow head coach German Titov:

- I congratulate SKA with the victory. Their added quality made the difference today, although we did have chances. Their goaltender played great. You can't win without scoring goals, and we have things to work over. Individual mistakes led up to SKA scoring.

- When teams are losing heavily, they often have a fight to bring back hope. Did you have such thoughts today?

- We don't have any tough guys on our team, we have small guys.

- Did you have any special words to say in the dressing room before this game?

- No, we prepared as we would for any other game. We always look through the opponent's details. Players should always enjoy playing against strong teams, to see how they compare up against them. You try to progress and move in the right direction. Such defeats are useful for our team, we can see how we can play hockey better. There's nothing bad about this.

- What did you think about the quality of refereeing today?

- They did a good job overall. We're all human, we make mistakes sometimes. I can't say anything special about their performance.

HC SKA head coach Sergei Zubov:

- We had a nervy start, and then we got it together. Our game plan was to shoot a lot and to pressure the opponents. We are happy with the result, and satisfied that we gave Igor Shestyorkin a shutout.

- Why didn't Joakim Lindstrom and Pyotr Khokhryakov play?

- They have no health problems. We put together the optimal squad for this particular game.

- Did you have a task to shoot a lot against Atte Engren?

- We wanted to crash the net and shoot as much as we could.

- Can Igor Shestyorkin become SKA's number one goaltender?

- It's too early to speak about this. He has had two good matches, and we will try to continue to give him chances.

- For Saint Petersburg, Spartak is like a red rag to a bull. Did you have extra motivation for this match?

- No, it's the start of a new home series. Our task was to go out and win this game.