Captain “Motorist” Sergei Chirokov after defeating SKA (5:4) discussed the reasons for the good results of the Yekaterinburg team this season.
Avtomobilist, led by Nikolai Zavarukhin, defeated SKA in St. Petersburg (5:4), closing the quarterfinal series with a score of 4-1. In the third round, Avtomobilist will play with the winner of the Metallurg – Spartak pair.
Earlier, Chelyabinsk Traktor, led by Alexey Zavarukhin, the cousin of the coach Avtomobilist, reached the third round of the Gagarin Cup, where they will play with the winner of the Lokomotiv-Avangard pair.
– How did Avtomobilist win this series?
– These are team actions. Faith in the team, in oneself and in partners. We’ve proven it: it doesn’t matter who starts in our squad. Because we understood it perfectly: some were injured, others could not play for certain reasons. Jesse Blacker stayed with us in Yekaterinburg. The young people are arriving. But everyone rallied together, we came out in one go. And with the score 2:4, there was calm – everyone was sure that we could equalize the score, win and end the series. We act as one mechanism, and that is the most important thing.
— In other words, “the Motorist” also has a lot of injuries. Isn’t that why you haven’t played since the first game of the series?
– Microdamage… Everyone understands that without this there is nowhere in the playoffs. I think there are injuries on any team. It all depends on the severity. But it’s hockey, a man’s game. There is no escaping this. But we will recover by preparing more.
— “Avtomobilist” became only fifth in the East in the regular season. Why did they suddenly shoot now?
— Something went wrong for us in the championship. But as a team, we reversed that psychological moment where everyone said Avtomobilist was only for the regular season. And the roster is full of foreigners who don’t play in the playoffs, they don’t need anything. But actually no. All the guys believe in each other and believe they can go as far as possible. “Avtomobilist” went this far for the first time in history. And no one wants to stop. We believed in ourselves and that we could achieve big goals. And the confidence only grows with each match.
— How have cross-playoffs changed our league?
— First of all, it’s interesting for the fans. And for the hockey players themselves. For the first time playing with another conference, you see new pairings.
— It turns out that the East is stronger than the West? After all, you and Traktor have already reached the third round.
– It’s so hard to talk. There have been good matches in the East and West this season. But in the playoffs, the tournament format is slightly different. Make a mistake once or twice and the streak is over. Local moments can lead to major defeats. And we managed to minimize our mistakes in the series with SKA. And after the victory over Ak Bars, we united even more. In general, I think any team is capable of making the playoffs. Turns out Avtomobilist now does that.
— What is the secret of the Zavarukhin brothers?
— Maybe at Irina Saltykova’s? She rallied the two brothers in this same video.
– Right answer!
— In general, it’s difficult for me to talk about the coach. While the playoffs are underway, everyone is mobilized. We will give notes later.
— How can we even play hockey at the time of the tragic events in Moscow?
– It’s very difficult. We are all grieving together. I offer my deepest condolences to the families of the victims. It’s difficult to say, it’s a great sadness for all of us. The match the day before yesterday was one of the hardest of my career, even though I didn’t play. God bless these people who are currently hospitalized. And we all need to unite even more and help each other,” Shirokov told .
Watch live broadcasts of the Fonbet KHL Championship playoff matches on the Match Group channels, matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru sites.
Source : MatchTV

I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.