Before “Spartak » Pavel Poriadin told that Ilya Kovalchuk who returned to big hockey, gave momentum to the team and added emotions.
On Sunday, 40-year-old forward Ilya Kovalchuk played his first game for Spartak in the KHL. His team defeated Kunlun Red Star (5:2) in Luzhniki, and Kovalchuk himself, who played in a trio with Andrei Loktionov and Maxim Tsyplakov, scored a goal into an empty net and spent 14 minutes 33 seconds on the ice.
— How did you find the match?
– A little heavy. We started off well, but then we started doing things wrong. We got too carried away with the attack. But victory is victory.
— How did the return of Ilya Kovalchuk affect Spartak?
– Of course, he gave an impulse. Gave new emotions in the locker room. And we wanted to help him by winning.
— Help giving Ilya a pass to the empty goal?
– Yes, we saw his desire. It is clear that Spartak showed its game without acting only on Kovalchuk. But Ilya is still a master and will find the moment. He still needs time to adapt. And then it will be even better.
— What was your strategy when Ilya showed up with you in the first majority brigade?
“We understand that he has a good shot. It is clear that in this case Ilya must have passes. The Kunlun guys got it. Look at how they jumped on Kovalchuk in the first period to prevent him from shooting. But he still had some good moments. I think that now Ilya will still understand the style of our majority. We lost him in the last matches. This means that together we will make it with the optimal composition.
— Kovalchuk said that Spartak competes for the Gagarin Cup, but you always play adventurously.
– Well, yes, such a thing exists. We need to play more strictly on defense and not go into attacking the third player. There are nuances that will be key in the playoffs. And we must understand that if we are leading by three goals, we must not let the opponent get closer to us, in order to avoid stressful moments,” Poryadin told .
Spartak occupies first place in the championship with 62 points in 44 matches.
Watch live broadcasts of the Fonbet KHL Championship matches on the channel, as well as on the matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru sites.
Source : MatchTV

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