Nikita Zadorov: "It was important to score first"

Russian national team defenseman Nikita Zadorov spoke to the media after defeating the USA 4:3 in the quarter-final of the 2019 IIHF World Championship:

- We made life difficult for ourselves when conceding at the end of the third period, but in the end, we held on. It was important to score first. We knew that the Americans wanted to play fast ice hockey and they are very strong. It's great playing in front of our fans, and where we're staying, there are a lot of Russian supporters too. We know that they're supporting us at home too. This really helps us.