MOROZOV: DYNAMO PLAYED PERFECTLY

Poor performance of Ak Bars best link led by Alexey Morozov and Danis Zaripov became the main surprise of the KHL season’s first match in Kazan.


The captain of Ak Bars and Russian national team Alexey Morozov agreed to summarize the match in a short interview with sport press.

"We made awful start of the season, but agree with me that we don’t know how we will finish it", he said. "This match showed that we have enough room for improvement".

"Of course it’s bad that we lost, but we finally met with our fans who missed hockey. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to make them happy".

"Dynamo tried to keep 3:0 score after they scored the third goal, while we began attacking them as we had nothing to lose. Our goal gave us hope to save the match, but we failed to change the situation".

"Dynamo looked brilliant against us. We tried to do everything possible to win, because it’s the first match of the season. All teams open the season in different form, but our form next spring will be more important".

KHL: DYNAMO WINS THE OPENING CUP IN KAZAN

Dynamo Moscow outplayed Ak Bars 3:1 in the opening match of KHL regular season to grab the Opening Cup yesterday.


Ak Bars – Dynamo 1:3 (0:2, 0:1, 1:0)

Scorers: Balandin, 15:39 (0:1); Kolnik, 16:02 (0:2); Granak, 23:26 (0:3, PP); Pesonen, 46:06 (1:3)

Best players: Balandin (D); Strbak (D); Pesonen (A)

Dynamo looked complete and impressive, and their wise tactics for the match caused a lot of problems for the home side. Dynamo became the first club to win the KHL Opening Cup away.

"It’s unclear why we made so bad start", Ak Bars head coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov said. "We played better in the second and third periods, created good changes, but unfortunately scored only once. It was hard to fight back from 0:3".

YURZINOV: DYNAMO AND HC MVD HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON

The legendary hockey coach Vladimir Yurzinov shared his opinion on possible integration of HC Dynamo and HC MVD.


"I do not know details of possible integration of these clubs", Yurzinov told sport press. "To my mind these teams have absolutely different roads".

"Appearance of HC MVD became epoch-making event in history of Russian hockey. Achievements of this young club turned not only to a gift for all sensation-lovers, but into a lesson for other participants of the championship how to achieve success thanks to hard work and striving for victory".

"The Moscow region club became a new guiding line and author of new tendency in development of Russian hockey. We need to understand that many clubs of our league should take HC MVD as a model. So it’s necessary to think about it, but not about how to liquidate the team and create something new instead of it".

"As for Dynamo, their management should think about their future, because it is clear that they cannot move in the same direction anymore. They need to reconsider strategy of their development. Dynamo has not made any progress in recent years, that means they need to change something in the club. I think it’s better to pay their attention to players who grew professionally in their club".

"That is why I think these clubs have nothing in common with each other. HC MVD should develop new traditions of Russian hockey, while Dynamo need to concentrate on returning old traditions".

GOLOVKOV: IT WAS A SHAME

HC Dynamo Moscow president Mikhail Golovkov commented on the KHL first knockout round series against Spartak.


President of one of KHL favourites Dynamo Moscow, which was knocked out of the fight by their city rivals Spartak, expressed his point of view on the series.

"Our display this season is fully unsatisfactory", Golovkov said. "It is the worst performance during my work here".

"I have no words to describe what has happened. The team has so many strong players and they should have played much better".

"After the match I went to the locker rooms and told players that it was a shame. They must come up to our fans and apologize".

"So now we will think about changes, maybe we will change the club policy. Khomutov’s contract will run until 30 April, so after that we will decide whether to extend it or not".

SPARTAK EASES PAST DYNAMO

On sunday Spartak outplayed Dynamo Moscow at Luzhniki to win play-off series 3-1. They opponent in Gagarin Cup quarterfinal will be Lokomotiv, which knocked out Atlant.

Spartak – Dynamo Moscow 1:3 (0:2, 0:1, 1:0). 13 March, Saturday

Best players: Eremeev (D); Yachmenev (D); Weinhandl (D)

Spartak – Dynamo Moscow 4:0 (1:0, 3:0, 0:0). 14 March, Sunday

Best players: Kochnev (S); Cibak (S); Lapenkov (S)

Score in the series 3-1

"I thanked players for their work", said Spartak head coach at post-match press conference. "They have done everything like we asked them to. They calmed down and played with better discipline, that told upon result immediately".

"We lost play-offs in the first match of the series when we held 3-0 advantage and possessed initiative for most part of the game", said Dynamo head coach Andrey Khomutov. "That result told upon all Dynamo players".

"I consider our hockey in play-offs unsatisfactory and I want to apologize to our fans, who waited good game from us".

Lokomotiv – Atlant 4:3 (2:1, 2:0, 0:2). 13 March, Saturday

Lokomotiv – Atlant 2:1 OT (0:0, 0:0, 1:1, 0:0, 1:0). 14 March, Sunday

Score in the series 3-1

EPACHINTSEV: NO CLAIMS TO DYNAMO

Vadim Epachintsev became one of the most sensational exchanges of the season when he swapped Dynamo Moscow for Atlant.


"No doubt I am happy to move to Atlant", said Epachintsev to sport press. "I have already played in the Moscow region club and I know that it is very popular among hockey supporters".

"I moved from CSKA to Dynamo with my friend Oleg Saprykin and we hoped that we would be in group of leaders in the team, get more time on powerplay. Thanks to Sergey Kotov we felt that he trusted us, but unfortunately the club’s results were not satisfying at the beginning of the season and he had to leave".

"When Khomutov headed Dynamo, Oleg and I had little time on powerplay, but I have no claims to the head coach".

HUDLER: KHL IS VERY DIFFICULT LEAGUE

Leader of HC Dynamo Jiri Hudler answered sport press questions after the match against Spartak on Saturday.


Jiri Hudler, who sensationally slipped out of the national team’s Olympic roster, didn’t shine on Saturday evening when Spartak grabbed a shootout victory over Dynamo 4-3.

"KHL is very difficult league and we can’t play without mistakes all the time", said Hudler. "It’s necessary to understand that I am not a machine which scores goals and which must do it in all games".

"I came here to play hockey, but not with the thought to score 30 goals in one season".

"Spartak is not the easiest opponent, but I think that we begin to create a real team. Players got used to each other and understood Khomutov’s requirements. I think his coaching system begins to work".

KALYUZHNY: WE ARE MORE SELF-CONFIDENT NOW

Dynamo Moscow man Alexey Kalyuzhny scored the winning goal to lead his club to victory over CSKA.


"This victory became the eighth consecutive one for Dynamo", said the club’s vice-captain Alexey Kalyuzhny. "Of course this fact makes us more self-confident, because we lacked it at the beginning of the season".

"Now we play more calmly and even despite we were behind in this game, we managed to snatch victory".

"Both teams played very cautiously during two periods, since nobody wanted to be the first to concede goals".

"We played against CSKA with difficulty this season and suffered two losses, but I can’t say that we were too angry, we just wanted to win".

"I don’t think that my partners Komarov and Umark wanted to disable Parshin. Denis is one of CSKA leaders, and it’s natural when players challenge leaders more than others".

UMARK LEADS DYNAMO AGAINST AK BARS

The main hero of the match between Dynamo and Ak Bars Linus Umark answered questions.


"I played awfully in the first and second periods and it’s better to forget about them", said Umark.

"I had to go to the match by metro and it didn’t let me catch necessary playing rhythm since the beginning".

Dynamo Swedish players became the main heroes of yesterday match between Moscow and Kazan teams, despite they missed a lot of scoring opportunities in the opening two periods. But after the break the Swedish stars levelled the score and managed to grab the victory thus making this match the best one for Dynamo this season.

KHL: SPARTAK BEAT DYNAMO IN SOKOLNIKI

HC Spartak outplayed their Moscow rivals Dynamo in the Kontinental Hockey League match yesterday.

Spartak – Dynamo Moscow 4:2 (2:1, 1:1, 1:0)

Best players: Knyazev (S); Radivoevic (S); Hudler (D)

"I want to apologize in front of our supporters for this match", said Dynamo head coach Andrey Khomutov. "It was the worse game for us this season and we will try to find out reasons of our crisis".

DYNAMO FORWARDS DISMISED TO RESERVES

Forwards of HC Dynamo Moscow Oleg Saprykin and Vadim Epachintsev have been sent to reserves.


Ahead of the season’s kick-off the Moscow club managers counted that both newcomers would become leaders of the team, however their performance is far from ideal.

Dynamos coaching staff was not satisfied with hockey showed by Saprykin and Epachintsev in the match against Dynamo Minsk.

"Oleg and Vadim played awfully in Minsk and I decided to watch other forwards in action", said Dynamo head coach Andrey Khomutov. "I don’t consider their dismissal to reserves as educational measure, since we are trying to find our optimal lineup".

"All players should get a chance to show themselves".