- Denis, for starters, let's recall the series with Siberia. 3-0 - it seems to have passed easily. But if you look at the score of each match, there is no ease and close.
- Yes, what lightness is there! It was a very stressful series. You understand, the quarter finals are already, there are no weak teams left. Siberia has shown its best side. It is very good that we won in two home matches. And in Novosibirsk it was very difficult. The arena holds eight thousand, but even all the passages were crowded there. Only nine thousand gathered, according to my feelings. The buzz was just scary, we can say that “Siberia” in that match was a real sixth field. Yes guys and played for fun. The team completed the task for the season, so the hockey players were liberated.
- “ Magnitogorsk” reached the semifinals first. Consequently, there was more time for preparation. How did you spend this time?
- We have been playing without a break for the tenth month, so the coaches did not give us great physical activity. They provided a day off, which could not but benefit. After that, we took a rehabilitation course and practically didn’t appear on the ice - we ran small cross-country courses, worked out in the gym, and “turned the bike”. The coaches very well understand that the team is playing with all their strength, and try to do everything so that we can recover as best as possible before the series with Omsk.
- In the semifinals of “Metallurg” again fell “Vanguard”. Do you think it would be more convenient to play with Ak Bars?
- I do not even know. And Ak Bars is a good team. And Vanguard is a very strong rival. Our job is to go out on the ice and play, and against whom - there is no difference. Here we play, then we'll see what and how.
- Have you already begun to prepare just for Omsk?
- No, while the usual training process is going on. But we will definitely disassemble the game of “Vanguard”. Although we already literally know each other by heart. And we’ve watched the recordings of Avangard’s games over the course of the regular season, we all know his game schemes. But still try to find the "antidote."
- Isn’t it frightening that for the past three years Magnitogorsk has been inferior precisely to Avangard in the playoffs?
- Oh, I don’t even want to remember. We must forget these failures, not look back. You have to play from scratch. In addition, for those three years, we always started the series at home and lost, but now the “maza" has changed. We play the first two matches in Omsk. So now let's try to catch on a visit first. On the one hand, starting at home is always a big plus. But on the other hand, the experience of previous seasons shows that it is with Vanguard that this is not a plus at all.
- In your opinion, today's Avangard is stronger than last year?
- In my opinion, there is no difference. And last year Belousov had two good links, and now the same thing. Consider Omsk’s half-team just a brilliant level. But in no case do not think what I want to say, they say, the remaining links in the "Vanguard" play very badly. No, just the first two will be particularly difficult to confront. Well, the coach at Avangard is very experienced. In general, it is clear that the series will be extremely difficult. Yes, the guys are tired, but everyone wants to win. We will fight.
Kirill CHEREPANOV, Magnitogorsk