SKA - Torpedo. Press-conference

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

"I want to thank the fans for their wonderful support! We found a good balance today in our game between defence and attack, we moved the puck well between the zones. However, at the same time, we know that we have room for improvement.

"Furthermore, I would like to dedicate this victory to Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club! Exactly 40 years ago, Zenit won their first USSR Championship. On such an important day, we simply had to win and make our city happy.

"I would also like to point out Torpedo, they made it a really interesting match. Both teams focused on attack, unleashed plenty of shots on goal and entertained everyone watching. We will now prepare for our upcoming road trip.

"How will we spend the next seven days? As you can see for yourselves, we've improved our discipline. It's vital for our players to recover in the correct manner, after all they pick up lots of little injuries here and there. We'll work on the tactical aspects at training.

"Why have we signed young goalkeeper Stanislav Berezhnoi when we already have Gleb Saranchuk and Nikita Podlyagin for our VHL side SKA-Neva? What happens if one of them becomes injured? It's really difficult to find strong goalkeepers, but you need at least three in every team. Just look at Pavel Moisevich, he was fantastic for us today and achieved a 97.7% save percentage. Pavel has progressed with us, won the Kharlamov Cup last season and is a really talented guy. 

"Stanislav is one of the best goaltenders of his generation from Novokuznetsk. He was spotted by Avangard, who took him to Omsk where he went on to knock SKA-1946 out of the 2023/2024 MHL playoffs at the semi-final stage. Not even Ivan Demidov could score against him! In modern ice hockey, a goalkeeper is more than 50% of the team. Berezhnoi is a fantastic goalkeeper, so we can only be happy that he will play for SKA. 

"Nikita Serebryakov has moved in the opposite direction? I would like to wish Nikita luck with Avangard, he's a great player and person. When will Arseniy Koromyslov arrive in Saint Petersburg? He's flying in tonight. Three of our leading defensemen are currently out injured, so we see Arseniy as one of our six top defenders. He will play in our next match."

HC Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod head coach Igor Larionov:

"I would like to congratulate SKA with their victory, and our guys with their excellent performance. Yes, we did end up losing, but I am happy with our display regardless. Unfortunately, despite our dominance after initially falling 0:3 down, the solid performance of the Saint Petersburg goalkeeper prevented us from saving the game.

"In my opinion, we did enough not only to score more than one goal, but to also win the game. You saw the chemistry between our players throughout the latter two periods. If you register 44 shots on target against a strong opponent on the road, then you're doing something right. We had lots of big opportunities, but were lacking ruthelssness and luck in front of goal. We played the right way, forced the opponents into making mistakes and created clear chances to score, however it didn't happen for us. Nonetheless, if we continue playing this way, the goals will come.

"What did I have to say in the dressing room after the first period? I didn't like that the fact that we lost focus and started blaming each other for certain incidents which occurred on the ice. It doesn't matter if you're one, two or three down, you must always remain a team and play with focus. The players responded to our words but, unfortunately, we couldn't convert our chances."