“CSKA will never play defensively, but you have to respect the pressure of the opponent.” Sergei Fedorov – about the victory over “Torpedo”

CSKA head coach Sergei Fedorov surprised reporters by saying that in the first half the army team should focus on defending in their area.

On Thursday, CSKA beat Torpedo in the away game against Fonbet in the KHL Championship (4:0). The army team managed to score goals in the majority, minority and equal compositions.

“Today was a very interesting opponent for us,” said Fedorov. We rarely come across such teams. Nizhny Novgorod played well with the puck, his advantage in the first period was obvious. We asked the guys to hold back that pressure, to play defensively. So we played both on the spot and to score. The third period showed we had that vein – playing well with the puck and without the puck. We gained a lot of experience on this trip.

– You said that CSKA played in defense. And the army team is used to seeing the powerful in attack. Did you win today because you played in a way that was unusual for yourself?

– I said “on defense” only around the first ten minutes of the game, when the opponent had better possession of the puck. We had to play hard and get the puck out of our zone as quickly as possible. CSKA will never play defensively, but sometimes you have to respect the pressure of the opponent. We understood what Torpedo was doing and based our tactics on that.

– Can we say that today you have been rehabilitated for the defeat of the SKA?

– Sure. After the defeat in St. Petersburg, we didn’t scold the guys much. They just explained why they lost. Everything is made of details. I understand them, the guys reacted well and had a good game against Torpedo.

CSKA goalkeeper Alexander Sharychenkov, who recently returned to the lineup after injury, played clean for the first time this season.