Ak Bars Head Coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov praised the team’s performance in Game 1 of the KHL Eastern Conference Finals Playoff Series against Avangard.
Kazan defeated the team from Omsk in extra time with the score 3:2 (1:0, 1:0, 0:2, 1:0).
– The match was not bad, we can’t say that we started the match well, but rather well. The opponent played very well in attack and created difficulties for our defense. We scored well on the power play, made a counter-attack. Unfortunately, the deletions disappointed us a bit. It’s good that we ended up in overtime like that.
– Today, Ak Bars only suffered his first out in the third period. This is the most disciplined game of the playoffs.
I don’t remember, frankly. But in such matches you can’t retire, that’s for sure. We talk about it all the time, but, unfortunately, there are such cases.
– What did you think when Kirill Panyukov missed the empty net with the score 2:1?
– By the way, I did not see this situation – it was inconvenient for me to watch from the bench. From what I understand, he hit the post.
“But he improved in overtime. Satisfied with his game?
– Good game. He tries to play as we ask, so I’m happy.
– 3 out of 4 goals today were scored by majority teams. Will majority become a key factor throughout the series?
– Hard to say. In any case, we understand that it is impossible to leave, because they use the majority very well. Moreover, we discussed it, we talked about it a lot. Unfortunately, not everything worked out for us.
– What can you say about Kirill Semyonov, who finally gave up, but then assisted with the winning puck?
There are no questions about his game, he played well. What happened in the end – he hit the puck on the fly – it’s an accident, it happens, – the club’s press service quoted the coach.
The score of the series up to four wins became 1-0 in favor of Ak Bars. The next game will take place on April 3 in Kazan.
Watch live broadcasts of KHL playoff matches on the federal channel and thematic channels of the holding, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.
Source : MatchTV
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