Roman Rotenberg speaks after beating Spartak in Moscow

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

"We played well and fought hard against a strong Spartak Moscow team. We had the option of not playing our young guys in the third period, but I felt it was important for the development of both Matvei Korotky and Ivan Demidov for them to be on the ice. Our players develop in such matches. Yes, Ivan lost his duel for Spartak's third goal, but I don't think that this will happen again in the future. We have to give Ivan credit, he won the game for us in the shootout after initially missing chances in overtime.

"Furthermore, I would also like to point out that the referees missed a check to Ivan's head. Had he not received that blow, I don't think that he would have committed that mistake for the third conceded goal. Opposing teams have the task of taking our best players out of the game, but they are playing in accordance with how they're being allowed to. If this doesn't stop, we're going to run out of players.

"We will work on becoming more ruthless in front of goal in our upcoming matches. Alexander Nikishin's performance? Of course, he can play even better than what he showed today, but he did a good job and proved that he's a fighter.

"Korotky will now travel to the MHL All Star Game. We wanted to keep him here in Moscow so that he could play against Dynamo on Saturday, but the league stated that he must play in the All Star Game instead. It's a shame, but we always follow the regulations."