Press-conference

After the unsuccess defeat in the decisive match of the Continental Cup Super Final, the HC Donbass Head Coach Aleksandr Kulikov tried to analyze the course of the game, answering mass media questions.

- It was a game worthy of a final. We were very well prepared, and the players had a very good game in the first period. We outplayed the rivals by all the components in all areas and had 7 or 8 chances, unfortunately with no goals. We made major mistakes in the second period, and our opponents took advantages of it. Afterwards with the score 0:2, we tried our best, scored a goal, missed again, scored the second goal and we were about leveling even in the match. We opened up too early, but, anyway with the score 2:3, had some good moments to level the score. We lacked luck in some way, in some situations the opposition goalkeeper played excellently. They were more lucky than we. And at the end of the match we opened up entirely, ran to score a goal and the French players punished us for it. It is just a sport. And we must make the right decisions out of this game. Life goes on. We must move forward. It goes without saying that we wanted to win, but we didn’t manage for the first time.

- How deep is the disappointment?

- Its deep enough. There are remarks to the players, even in the winning games. Coming home we will think back to the game. We will study it out and we will move forward. You know that there is no success and development without failure. The fact that we reached the Final, won two games out of three - it is an honour but it is a pity that in an evenly matched game with a team that we should have been able to beat, we lost. It is vexing. But anyway everybody tried his best. There are no remarks concerning the feedback. We combined all our strengths, but bad luck and lack of goals played a crucial role.

- As for the third place – is it an achievement or a failure?

- I don’t consider it as a failure. We won two games, but the number of goals determined everything. It is not a failure. If we lost two or three games, we would think of it in that way.

HC Donbass Press service