CSKA head coach Sergei Fedorov shared his emotions after the victorious fourth game of the second round of the playoffs against Dynamo Moscow (6:3).

Sergey Fedorov: “I had to get excited and understand that the word “hockey” means martial arts”

CSKA head coach Sergei Fedorov shared his emotions after the victorious fourth game of the second round of the playoffs against Dynamo Moscow (6:3).

– CSKA with a victory, guys with a victory, a difficult start for all of us: the coaching staff, the team. Probably, one can say that for the first time I found myself in such a situation, although the team was ready. Well, this is hockey, you can’t do without mistakes, I’m glad for the guys that they were able to rebuild. Even the end of the first period, the last 7-9 minutes we were already playing our own hockey, it gave some hope. The conversation was serious after the first period. The opponent was very good, organized, there were close games, the score could go in one direction or the other. Happy for us, we were able to react, score goals on time. Our guys from the 3rd-4th link were able to make a very good contribution. Happy for our team, let's move on.

How do you explain the first 10 minutes?

– In my understanding, there are enough reasons, but I will try to list the main ones. Somewhere our confidence at some point grew into self-confidence. This is a normal process. As the coaching staff, we understood this, we faced a small pause from our guys, although, I'm sure they also understood how to prepare for such games. I don’t know how many guys in our team who went through all 8 games in the playoffs with different opponents, the games were very close. And in this series the same situation, so this is one of the other reasons. We have already addressed this, the guys are great, they reacted and started playing correctly.

– Incredible comeback. What did you say to the guys during the break?

– Of course, we respect the opponents and the Dynamo coaching staff. As I said, a certain conversation took place, somewhere there were raised voices, this is a normal situation. We paid attention to our leading players and to those players who were obliged to improve in the performance of their direct duties: playing with the puck, playing without the puck. It was necessary to start and understand that the word hockey means martial arts, basically all martial arts – a one-on-one game, yes, hockey is a game of 5 on 5 plus 2 goalkeepers, it turns out 6 on 6, but we always understand that martial arts are one in one and so on. I can say again that the team not only reacted correctly to the increased tone, but also remembered that we can and know how to play, to do elements with and without the puck quite easily and freely, maybe that's why it looked from the outside that the team played in cold blood. We said a few words in this component after the first period.

“Gilmour wasn't here today. Why?

– John rested one game, everything is in order with him. We decided that we would go to seven defenders, John is preparing in normal mode. He is a large component of our team.

– Why didn't they change Fedotov?

– I will banally answer that one in the field is not a warrior. The goalkeeper must be helped, the game comes from the goalkeeper, I think that Ivan played normally, played well. The opponent was faster in many components, especially at the beginning of the game. Honestly, I didn’t even think that we would miss something or missed. We kept calm, kept our heads. The score, of course, was quite large and deep for such playoff games, and not the fact that it will turn out next time, but we will talk about the next time another time. At the moment, Ivan has done his job, our task was to organize a dense defense around him, the help, the interaction of our and defenders, and the attackers. I believe that at the end of the first period we began to do more or less correct things.

-Why did you still refuse the game the first number on the road? Take care of strength?

-We never took care of the forces in general, because when you begin to protect something, it comes out the opposite. I do not think that we did something from the stove, but in this situation today after the first 10 minutes I had to remind the guys how we play, what we can. Although really not everything turned out in favor of the next situation. They found strength, found will, believed in each other and went forward.

CSKA won the fourth victory in a series in a row (4-0). The red and blue were the first to reach the semifinals of the Gagarin Cup.