“Serebryakov got off the plane and played. It’s a sporting achievement” – Roman Rotenberg

The head coach SKA Romain Rotenberg said that the team’s new goalkeeper Nikita Serebriakov accomplished a sporting feat by playing a match with CSKA immediately after joining the club.

On Friday, SKA defeated CSKA on the road in a regular season match of the Fonbet KHL Championship with a score of 3:2.

— I would like to mention a strong opponent. It’s great when hockey is at such a high level. In such a competition, guys develop. The level is very high, in no way lower than that of the NHL. We are very happy to play with CSKA. Strong coaching staff, strong team. The guys have completed the installation. We have changed a lot compared to last season. The goalkeeper played for us today – he arrived from Vladivostok at night. It’s a feat on his part, a feat for the whole team. Congratulations to the team on their victory. We set up, played for each other, showed character and snatched victory from a very strong opponent. I would like to say hello to the fans – the stands are full today. We heard and saw our fans, we thank them very much.

— What stops SKA from winning more often? After all, we only just reached the playoff zone.

— The main thing is that we show high-quality play in the spring. We don’t look at the ranking, we look at the details, the tactics. A lot of work has been done since the last playoffs. We understood that it would be difficult for the guys who played for the national team in the series with Belarus. They gave all their strength to win this series, suffered injuries, broken bones and were emotionally emasculated. We had a difficult situation to bring the team to a common denominator.

Last season we scored points for 20 games in a row, there was a difficult period in the Far East, where everyone was sick. It was hard to get out of that hole. Today we introduced fresh blood and it worked. Today was my 20th match with CSKA as head coach in two years. We have a lot of experience and have managed to study our opponents.

— You quickly won back twice. Did the opponent’s goals motivate SKA?

— We have extensive experience against CSKA. The more games with such an opponent, the better. We have fun on the bench. We had a “damn it” twice. The second goal is a rebound, the opponent loves to play like that. The first goal was our mistake, we have to eliminate them. We played well, but we can play a lot better.

— SKA scored two decisive goals on counter-attacks. Have you studied your opponent so well?

“It’s a consequence of the good work of the whole team.” We changed tactics a lot, we changed a lot of guys. We have a new team, we can play even better. The guys moved the puck when they scored, that’s what we asked for. Shorthanded counter-attacks are modern hockey. You have to play with timing to have such opportunities. We also scored on the majority. Hockey is creativity, creativity. We will score even more, the defenders will shoot more.

— Why is Serebryakov so good that the SKA hunted him down for six months? Did he really arrive at night?

– Let it stay within the team. He got off the plane and played the game. It’s a sporting achievement. There are even more difficult situations. Thank God our health is fine. With Serebryakov, we developed a series with the Belarusians. He knows our system, he knows all the guys. We understand that you can’t win hockey without a goalie. Remember our games last season: we often pulled the goalkeeper because we realized we had a better chance of winning. We are happy that we now have strong goalkeepers, not just Nikita. Anything can happen in sport: injuries happen. We need reserves, we have a lot of injured people. We have them now, new guys have come out and added what we were missing. It’s a team victory. The team wins, the coach loses,” reports a correspondent, reporting Rotenberg’s comments.

Watch Fonbet matches of the KHL championship on the channels of the Match holding company, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.