"We ourselves provoked the judges to leave us in the minority"

The playoffs have begun in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), traditionally the most interesting part of the season. On March 23, the first matches in four of the eight series of the first round have already been held. A day later, confrontations will begin in four others, including in the series between Dinamo Minsk and Moscow. The Blue and White entered the playoffs from seventh place in the Western Conference, while their Belarusian rivals finished second.

At the same time, on the last day of the regular season, Muscovites could become fifth, but then they would fall in the first round to one of the strongest and most inconvenient competitors — CSKA Moscow. However, this did not happen due to the fact that in the last two regular season matches Dynamo lost at home to Vladivostok Admiral (1:2) and Kazan Ak Bars (5:7). In an interview with Izvestia, Dynamo Moscow striker Ivan Zinchenko said that his team did not guess the opponent in the playoffs, explained the reasons for the failure in the last game of the regular season and shared his opinion about the upcoming opponent from Minsk.

— As a result of the defeat in the last match of the regular season, Dynamo avoided getting into the first round of the playoffs at CSKA. Was there such a goal?

— There was nothing like that. This is nonsense. It took me a moment to figure out what the question was. Of course, it's not that someone was guessing the opponent. The same match with Ak Bars turned out that way because many young guys were given a chance to prove themselves. They, like everyone who took to the ice in this match, tried to show themselves in a good way, but... There is a small "but" that we were not completely good and could not win.

— Does the fact that we ended the regular season with two home defeats put a negative background on the start of the playoffs? Or should we forget about these failures?

— I guess I should forget. Moreover, the same game against Ak Bars was good in terms of content and moments. A lot of goals, a lot of chances from our side. But, unfortunately, there were a lot of deletions, and this affected the result. What's there to comment on — Kazan has a masterful team, and everyone knows it. So she took advantage of our deletions, our mistakes. She implemented most of them, and we gave her these features with our own deletions. We ourselves provoked the judges to leave us in the minority.

— Isn't it a shame that we finished seventh in the West, even though we could have finished fourth in early March?

"Well, listen up... They probably could have. But it's all written on top (smiles). Yes, we played some bad matches. We always play to win anyway, but something went wrong. And as a result, we came out of seventh place. But never mind, we'll play in the playoffs to win.

"The KHL playoffs are the juice, the celebration, the best time in hockey"

Ak Bars player Ilya Karpukhin — about the start of the Gagarin Cup, the series with Traktor and the principle of confrontation with his hometown club

— What would you say about your upcoming opponent, Dinamo Minsk?

— A good, fast team. She has a good majority and goalkeepers. But there are no weak teams in the KHL, especially in the playoffs.

— Do you feel that Dynamo Moscow can compete for the Gagarin Cup?

- of course. Otherwise, why even start playing in the season? I think we have a very good team that is capable of a lot in the playoffs. We will do everything to achieve the best possible result.