ZAKHARKIN: TEAM’S PSYCHOLOGY IS IMPORTANT

Salavat Yulaev senior coach Igor Zakharkin commented on course of play-off series against Neftekhimik and other evens in quarterfinal series.


"Only two goals have been scored in last two matches of our quarterfinal series and I was mot surprised by it at all", Zakharkin said to sport press. "Ahead of the start of the series we expected that teams wouldn’t present a feast of goals".

"Neftekhimik is hard working team, which stakes on discipline in defence and quick switch to counterattack, that is the main strong point of well-known specialist Vladimir Krikunov".

"We guessed that nobody would complete with Salavat Yulaev in open hockey. In this respect the first match with many goals was surprising".

"After Vancouver games we pay more attention to factor of the team’s psychology. Contact between coach and player becomes crucial in modern hockey".

"I suppose that with 1-2 score Salavat played like a team with perfect psychology. Having occurred in difficult situation we gained valuable experience".

"Specialists call Neftekhimik goalie Ivan Kasutin as the breakthrough of the series. I can agree with them, though we were aware of his potential before".

"On the other hand, we know situations when Kasutin is not always able to save his team. Our task is to play our players’ attention to these moments".

"I watch other play-off series a little bit, though failures of Dynamo and especially SKA came as big surprise for our coaching staff".

"Saint Petersburg club was one of the main favourites of the competition, plus all breaks for Euro Hockey Tour tournaments and Olympic games helped them a lot".

"It’s hard to understand why this big club came out of this favourable situation as a loser. Maybe they faced serious problems with training process".

"As for Dynamo, I think that coach’s plan was not reason of their mistakes. The team began the series against Spartak brilliantly, but when the score was 3:0 something happened and they failed the whole series. It turned that they didn’t manage to create a stable team".

"Spartak is interesting team. Milos Riha is wonderful coach, who sets his players for all games and presses their opponents and even referees. Maybe Spartak roster is weaken that Dynamo’s squad, but thanks to Riha’s energy situation has changed".

"I like Lokomotiv too, as they are very effective in play-off every year and don’t depend on coach very much despite Petr Vorobyev joined Yaroslavl one month before start of play-offs and had enough time to present his playing models".