The teams' head coaches summed up the game.
Igor Nikitin, head coach of the CSKA:
– I would like to draw attention to the five-minute penalties again. This is not men's hockey, we are heading in an unknown direction. The milling begins. I understand that they are trying hard for their team. But once again, hockey has always stand out by the fact that it is played by real men. It's not on. The guys did well, this penalty gave us the kind of energy that allowed us to win today.
– Klim Kostin didn't finish the game. Does he have an injury?
– Klim Kostin just happens to play men's hockey. The puck hit him in the finger, they gave him painkillers, but he endured it. This is men's hockey, this is what fans come to see. And the Nizhnekamsk guys also sat under the puck. This is something to be welcomed.
– Recently there have been problems with the execution on power-play. What comes to it?
– We see problems not only in the power-play, but all our games are difficult in terms of converting chances. All moments are first chances, but should be charged with second finishing moves, not just scoring with the first move. We need to restructure. The same thing for the power-play.
– Gamzin and Samonov play great. Will you continue to juggle with them until the end of the regular season?
– They both deserved playing time. But none of them can be called the clear number one. We have a difficult decision, so it makes sense to let them play to keep them in good shape. And in the training process, Rashid Davydov works with them; there are points to tweak up. Everything is standard here for us.
– Isn’t there a mental problem with this for the goalkeeper? If he understands that he is the number one, he might be less worried, especially a month before the playoffs.
– A goalkeeper shouldn't just become number one. The main thing is that everyone around him understands that he is number one, and that the second goalkeeper understands this too. It's a long story. You must win the place of the first goalkeeper. It's a man's sport, there's real competition.
– Yeryomenko also didn't play in the third period. Is he okay?
– He didn’t play because he received a five-minute penalty. It was more comfortable to play in three pairs after that, the guys were in good shape.
– In January, CSKA defeated the Minsk Dinamo and Moscow Dynamo, and the Spartak confidently. But after the victory over Sochi, it seems that the team lacks emotion and strength. How can you explain this?
– The guys spent a lot of emotions in these games, in the derby. Emotions are one of the components. Today they got the five-minute minority. Because there was an advantage before, but without the drive.
Igor Grishin, head coach of the Neftekhimik:
– There were no chances in attack today, the opponent played great defense. They cover practically everything and don’t allow us to create chances. We didn't find any options to intensify the situation or create any clear chances. The only thing is that the penalty shot came from somewhere, and they didn’t convert it.
– Why did you choose Fedotov to take the penalty shot?
– Belozerov and Artamonov were not here today. Tochilkin came home from his shift, breathing heavily. I looked at Max, they nodded to each other, he was ready.
– Joseph Dushak began to go on the offensive. Usually, defenders are placed in the center, you placed them on the flank.
– Because we talked to him, and he said that he can play both in the center and on the flank. He got it clear that it would be the right flank and the center. But since the central forwards' play today of no particular concerns, he was placed on the flank. Andrei Belozerov is injured, Vlad Barulin is out, and we understand that we need to move on. We are fighting for the playoffs. And in attack we have Krivolapov – he is still young, just a rookie. Thank God, Sokolov seems to be showing off. We talked to Duszak and looked at his actions on the rink; they look like he can create in attack as well. He said he had experience playing this game. It just so happened today that I decided at this very moment to try it. There weren't many changes in reality, so I haven't yet formed any definite opinion on the matter. Let's look further.
– Is there any update on Andrei Belozerov yet? Will he go to the Far East?
– It'll be clear only tomorrow. There was swelling, and MRI is not done when there is swelling. Tomorrow he's going to have an MRI, we'll see what kind of damage there is. We know Andrei is a fighter, and he'll be out on the ice at any opportunity. After his examination, we'll see if he'll go on this trip.
– Your club has only two wins in the last seven games. Is it possible to say that a certain crisis has caught the team, or is it better not to throw around such words?
– We have a crisis in attack; we score very few goals. Even the games we won with minimal scoring – one or two goals. This is the main crisis. In fact, we train a lot in this regard and try to work through these issues in training, but for some reason we can’t do it in games.
– Could it be that the guys have become overconfident?
– Of course not. We go from game to game, in principle, with the exception of today's game, the content of the play is quite good. I can't say that we played badly. Today the opponent was actually stronger and that's all. In the games we lost in this series, we played quite well, created a lot of chances, but didn’t convert them. I don't think any coach can give an answer as to why the team isn't scoring. Everyone tries to train this element; they work on it during training. It’s hard to say why it works better in some places and not in others. We try to guide the guys towards a sharper game, a more confident, more daring one; to take the game upon themselves, to do something unconventional somewhere. But we haven't got it go so far.
