Andrei Nikolishin: tonight was celebration of hockey

Arkadi Andreyev, Avtomobilist senior assistant coach:
- First of all, congratulations to Traktor on tonight’s victory and on a terrific overall performance. It was a fifth straight away game for us, and Traktor looked fresher, especially when it came to movement on the ice. We evened the game out in the second twenty, but an unnecessary penalty at the top of the third decided the game. Traktor defended pretty well tonight and attacked sharply as well.

Andrei Nikolishin, Traktor head coach:
- Thank you. I think everyone who watched tonight’s game loved it. Many fans came from Yekaterinburg; Traktor fans were also very vocal tonight and even launched a wave at some point. Tonight was truly a hockey celebration night. Now, to the game – I told my boys that Avtomobilist would come here for a battle; before this game, they beat Salavat and Ak Bars, so we had to take them seriously. A power play goal early in the third more or less secured the win for us. Now, after a great home series we hit the road.

Question to Nikolishin: Does Traktor always train twice a day or was it due to the fact that you took your tonight’s opponent so seriously?
Nikolishin: Who told you we train twice a day?

Question to Nikolishin: That’s what the fans say.
Nikolishin: Well, you should ask the fans about it then. We don’t have two training sessions a day; we’ve had 14 games in the last 30 days, can you imagine what the team would look like had we been training twice a day? The most important thing now is to recuperate.

Question to Nikolishin: Did you expect six straight wins at the start of 2015?
Nikolishin: Of course I did. We can’t plan our setbacks like SKA does, but we sure can plan victories.

Question to Andreyev: Can you comment on Gusev’s performance tonight?
Andreyev: It was not his best game for sure. But cut the guy some slack – he’s almost 40 years old, but we need him. He didn’t make huge mistakes tonight and played a fairly average game.

Question to Andreyev: Will the team be in shape for another Ural derby versus Magnitka?
Andreyev: We will do our best to ensure that. We are going to travel to Magnitogorsk by bus, so it’s not exactly a big trip. Every game is like playoffs for us now; unfortunately, some players are left out due to injuries, like Golyshev or Bumagin, and we need them because they are fixtures on the main roster. We have been playing with 11 forwards for a few games now; defensemen put on decent performances, but unnecessary penalties in the attacking zone take their toll.

Question to Andreyev: Did you somehow communicate with head coach Yemelin during the game?
Andreyev: Absolutely. I talked to him during the breaks. If you are implying that we lost because he was not on the bench, it’s not that; we played a decent game, but our own mistakes…well, I have already covered that.