Reaction after beating Belarus at the SKA Arena

Interviews were taken following the second match of the 2024 Channel One Cup against Belarus at the SKA Arena.

Russia 25 head coach Roman Rotenberg:

"First of all, I want to thank the fans inside the packed SKA Arena for their incredible support! Our colleagues from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Turkey were in attendance with us today, and they all said that the best atmosphere is here. We really do have the best arena in the world!

"In terms of the game itself, we followed the plan and fought for each other. However, in unfortunate news, our forward Grigory Kuzmin has gone to hospital with a broken nose which we sustained as a consequence of a hard, dirty hit. This is a real shame, because Grigory has been in excellent form recently. He will now be on the sidelines for quite a while. We knew that Belarus were going to use a physical, hard-hitting approach, but the referees should have given a penalty for that particular hit. My personal opinion is that the referees failed to control the game.

"We have to give credit to Belarus too, they were phenomenal. Their strong performance makes our victory even more important. What thoughts were running through my head when we conceded three goals across a span of 68 seconds? To be honest, I didn't know what to think! But I certainly didn't have any thoughts about swapping Ilya Nabokov, he's the best goalkeeper in the KHL. We'll analyse our mistakes and prepare for tomorrow's match.

"Will we make changes for the upcoming games against Kazakhstan? We need to put the strongest team out there tomorrow in order to achieve a positive result. This isn't a time for experiments!"

Russia 25 defenseman Alexander Yelesin:

"Both teams had chances, it was a quick game with an excellent tempo. Belarus scored three quickfire goals in the second stanza? We lost concentration, but the most important thing is that we eventually got the job done. The importance of the Channel One Cup? It's a great opportunity for us to represent our country and make the fans happy."

Russia 25 forward Evgeny Kuznetsov:

"Belarus a strong side, they gave us a tough challenge. We saw today just how much of a good team they are. It was difficult for us, but thankfully we managed to achieve the victory in overtime. My winning goal? I turned the puck beyond the goalkeeper after receiving a pinpoint pass from Vasily Glotov.

"I don't like how the much is moving at this competition, the sticker on it is affecting its movement on the ice. This is an important tournament for us, it's the only opportunity which the fans have to watch us play."