Torpedo - SKA. Press-conference

HC SKA head coach Sergei Zubov:

- It was an interesting game, both teams had a lot of goalscoring chances. Both teams could have won. In the third period we allowed the opponents to take the initiative, and as a result we can be satisfied with only one point.

- You missed a lot of opportunities to score.

- Yes, we had a lot of them. Today the opponents were more lucky.

- Why didn't Pavel Buchnevich and Sergei Shirokov make their debuts today?

- We gave them time to adapt. We will see how ready they are in the coming days.

- What happened in the third period?

- The opponents upped their game, and we weren't ready for that.

- Did the national teams players' tiredness take its toll?

- No - if you watched the game carefully, you would have noticed that those players created a lot of chances and scored the first two goals.

- Ilya Kovalchuk sat two team penalties out. Are you unhappy with his game?

- No, he was simply on the ice during that time. When a player leaves the penalty box, he can create a dangerous chance. That's why Ilya was there.

HC Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod head coach Peteris Skudra:

- It was a good, fast paced match. Maybe the quality of our performance let us down. However, taking into account how many defensive players we have out, I didn't have any problems with my guys after two periods. They played great, but couldn't hit empty nets and Saint Petersburg scored on the counterattack. I told the guys that I really enjoyed the first and second periods. We changed our lines around, but we tried to keep on playing the same way. We began to start scoring in the third period, and the guys did a good job. They kept on playing until the end and deservedly won. The only thing bad is that we concede goals too easily. Probably, not all of our players are ready to play against such an opponent on this level.

- Why did you make a goaltending change?

- Ilya Proskuryakov didn't play well, and without a goalkeeper it's hard to win. We pay goalkeepers to not only concede goals, but to save pucks too. Our second goaltender played well and helped us to win.

- Speak about Kirill Koltsov's signing.

- We're trying to strengthen our team. We have a lot of defencemen injured, and Kirill will help us before the playoffs.

- Will you sign any other new players?

- I don't know. I'd like to do something, both in defence and in attack. If we can do that though - that's a different question.

- When will we see Linus Videll again?

- He's training with the main group, but isn't ready to take part in official matches yet.