SKA - CSKA. Press-conference

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- I would like to thank the opponents for this match. CSKA are an excellent team, they created difficulties for us. We understood the importance of the game. Our guys did a great job, they competed with fire in their eyes and followed the game plan. Nevertheless, some mistakes were committed. We'll now prepare for our next game on Saturday.

- SKA earned two large victories in this home series.

- You only win by giving 100% on the ice. Hopefully, we will continue playing ice hockey like this. Leningrad tiki-taka? This way of playing the game allows us to beat any opponent! However, it's important to remember that this was only one match.

- You previously stated that CSKA's championship window was closing. Did this performance prove that your statement was true?

- It's too early to say that. When that statement was made, I had a lot of emotion. We don't need to make any bold statements.

- How satisfied are you with your players' ruthlessness in front of goal? SKA scored 13 goals across the past two games.

- We're putting emphasis on the importance of capitalising on our scoring opportunities. We always create a lot of chances, but sometimes we don't use a lot of them. Every player should be able to take responsibility.

- Goalkeeper Nikita Serebryakov was rested against Sochi after the Channel One Cup. Were you making sure that he was fully prepared to face CSKA?

- All of our goaltenders are strong. The same can be said for our entire team. Unfortunately, we currently have a lot of injuries in our group, all of our opponents are competing in a physical manner against us. Matches against CSKA allow for us to reach new heights, take our game to the next level and develop as a team. We saw just how fired up our players were for this match today.

- Maxim Fedotov scored his second for SKA, while Pavel Dedunov netted his first marker for the club.

- Every player is capable of scoring goals. I liked how Maxim scored his goal, he skated to the crease and won the battle for the loose puck. This is something which we've been working on. Hard work and discipline is allowing us to be successful.

- How difficult is it to maintain full concentration when leading by several goals?

- We can never afford to relax for a second, especially when playing CSKA. They're an incredibly strong team with Olympic, world and Gagarin Cup champions in their squad. CSKA have regularly proved their worth.

HC CSKA Moscow head coach Sergei Fyodorov:

- I would like to congratulate SKA with their victory, they scored beautiful goals. At the moment, we're playing well for certain stints of games, but that's it. We're trying to find solutions to the problems which we are facing. Yes, of course I firmly believe in our guys, but it's clear that we need a certain period of time to find our game and win again. We will emerge from this crisis as quickly as possible.

- Why did Ivan Fedotov return to your net in the third period after initially being pulled following SKA's fifth goal?

- We didn't want to pull Ivan, but the referees told us that he had to leave the ice because he had skated to our bench after SKA scored. I don't think that Ivan played badly today, but our skaters didn't provide him with any kind of assistance. It's obvious that having not played professional ice hockey for 18 months, Ivan was always going to need time to return to his level.

- You have a lot of young players in your line-up. Do you instruct them to strictly follow the game plan, or are you allowing them to improvise?

- Ice hockey is a game, you always have to improvise. But, if we speak about ice hockey without the puck, then of course we have a system which needs to be followed. I have no issue with our guys at all, they're trying their best and are getting used to playing at this level. The only problem is that we're making a lot of mistakes. By the way, when nine of our senior players were on the sidelines, we won a lot of matches against strong opponents by playing mobile ice hockey. We need more time in order to play well for the entire 60 minutes.

- Yaroslav Dyblenko didn't play for CSKA today.

- He's in Moscow preparing for our upcoming matches.

- Vladislav Kamenev kept on instigating conflicts with SKA players in the second frame. Does he have some personal issues with SKA?

- That's a question for Vladislav.

- How can CSKA cope with this period? As you have previously stated, your players appear to be burnt out.

- The brain is always working hard and practically never becomes fatigued, but the same can't be said for the body. I remember that when we were trying to win another championship, we said that our heads are in gear, but our bodies simply aren't. We felt as though we were skating fast but, when we watched our games back on video, we saw that actually we weren't moving at all! Our bodies aren't listening to our brains at this moment in time.

- Is it important for you to finish high in the standings ahead of the playoffs?

- Right now, all we need to do is improve our performance level, play well for a full set of 60 minutes and earn at least one win. Penalties and a lack of discipline are factors which certainly aren't helping us. As a coaching group, we are trying to find a solution as quickly as we can.