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2020–21 Liiga season

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(Redirected from 2020–21 SM-liiga season) Sports season
2020–21 SM-liiga
LeagueSM-liiga
SportIce hockey
DurationOctober 2020 – May 2021
Number of teams15
TV partner(s)Telia
C More
Regular season
Best recordLukko
  Runners-upHIFK
Season MVPRobin Press (Lukko)
Top scorerPetri Kontiola (HPK)
Playoffs
Playoffs MVPEetu Koivistoinen (Lukko)
Finals championsLukko
  Runners-upTPS
SM-liiga seasons
← 2019–202021–22 →

The 2020–21 SM-liiga season was the 46th season of the SM-liiga, the top level of ice hockey in Finland, since the league's formation in 1975. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic all the games had to be played to a very limited audience or no audience at all. Two teams have temporarily let go of their coaches due to financial reasons: JYP and SaiPa. The season was Hakametsä's last full season.

Teams

2020–21 Liiga season is located in FinlandJukuritJukuritHIFKHIFKHPKHPKIlves TapparaIlves
TapparaJYPJYPKalPaKalPaKooKooKooKooKärpätKärpätLukkoLukkoPelicansPelicansSaiPaSaiPaÄssätÄssätSportSportTPSTPSclass=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2020–2021 Liiga
Team City Head coach Arena Capacity Captain
HIFK Helsinki Jarno Pikkarainen Helsingin jäähalli 8,200 Jere Sallinen
HPK Hämeenlinna Matti Tiilikainen Pohjantähti Areena 5,360 Markus Nenonen
Ilves Tampere Jouko Myrrä Tampereen jäähalli 7,300 Eemeli Suomi
Jukurit Mikkeli Marko Kauppinen12.3.2021
Jari Kauppila		 Ikioma Areena 4,200 Jesper Piitulainen
JYP Jyväskylä Mikko Viitanen (27.12.2020–)
Jussi Tupamäki (21.10.2020–27.12.2020)
Pekka Tirkkonen (furloughed 21.10.2020–31.3.2021)		 LähiTapiola Areena 4,437 Jani Tuppurainen
KalPa Kuopio Tommi Miettinen Olvi Areena 5,300 Tommi Jokinen
KooKoo Kouvola Jussi Ahokas Lumon Areena 5,950 Alexander Bonsaksen
Kärpät Oulu Mikko Manner Oulun Energia Areena 6,400 Mika Pyörälä
Lukko Rauma Pekka Virta Kivikylän Areena 4,700 Heikki Liedes
Pelicans Lahti Tommi Niemelä Isku Areena 5,371 Hannes Björninen
SaiPa Lappeenranta Ville Hämäläinen (8.11.2020–27.3.2021)
Tero Lehterä (furloughed 8.11.2020–27.3.2021)		 Lappeenrannan jäähalli 4,820 Jarno Koskiranta
Sport Vaasa Risto Dufva Vaasan Sähkö Areena 4,164 Erik Riska
Tappara Tampere Jussi Tapola Tampereen jäähalli 7,300 Jukka Peltola
TPS Turku Raimo Helminen Gatorade Center 11,820 Lauri Korpikoski
Ässät Pori Ari-Pekka Selin Isomäki Areena 6,350 Niklas Appelgren

Regular season

Top six advanced straight to the quarter-finals, while teams between 7th and 10th positions played a wild card round for the final two spots. The SM-liiga is a closed series and thus there is no relegation. Due to several games having been cancelled due to COVID-19 cases in various teams in March 2021, not all teams got an even number of games, therefore SM-liiga decided that the rankings of the regular season will be determined by points per game average.

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD W+ Pts PPG Final Result
1 Lukko 60 38 7 15 204 114 90 6 127 2.12 Advance to Quarterfinals
2 HIFK 50 26 11 13 153 113 40 7 96 1.92
3 TPS 59 27 18 14 165 140 25 7 106 1.80
4 Tappara 59 26 13 20 171 151 20 8 99 1.68
5 KalPa 58 25 15 18 152 125 27 7 97 1.67
6 Pelicans 58 25 12 21 169 147 22 10 97 1.67
7 Kärpät 58 25 12 21 143 134 9 10 97 1.67 Advance to Wild-card round
8 Ilves 53 25 10 18 161 142 19 3 88 1.66
9 KooKoo 55 25 11 19 165 125 40 5 91 1.65
10 Sport 54 19 12 23 123 140 −17 6 75 1.39
11 HPK 57 16 19 22 143 172 −29 6 73 1.28
12 Ässät 58 15 15 28 150 193 −43 6 66 1.14
13 SaiPa 53 13 9 31 95 147 −52 3 51 0.96
14 Jukurit 57 13 10 34 120 199 −79 5 54 0.95
15 JYP 59 13 12 34 139 211 −72 4 55 0.93
Source: Liiga

Rules for classification: 1) Points per game; 2) 3-point wins 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Head-to-head points.

Playoffs

Contrary to the best of three format used in the past seasons, the wild-card round will take place in two games and the aggregate score decides the team which advances. The remaining rounds will be played in the best-of-5 format instead of the typical best-of-7 format

Bracket

Wild-card round (agg-of-2) Quarter-finals (best-of-5) Semi-finals (best-of-5) Finals (best-of-5)
1 Lukko 3
8 Ilves 6 8 Ilves 0
9 KooKoo 4 1 Lukko 3
4 Tappara 1
4 Tappara 3 (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round)
5 KalPa 1
1 Lukko 3
3 TPS 1
2 HIFK 3
7 Kärpät 7 7 Kärpät 0
10 Sport 3 2 HIFK 1 Bronze medal game
3 TPS 3
3 TPS 3 2 HIFK 7
6 Pelicans 2 4 Tappara 1


Wild-card round

The worse ranked team will play the first game at home. The aggregate score of the two games decides the winner of the round. There will be no over-time or penalty shoot-outs in the first game even if the score is tied. If the aggregate score is tied after the second game, overtime will be played in 20 minute periods until a goal is scored.

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Sport 3–7 Kärpät 2–4 1–3
KooKoo 4–6 Ilves 1–4 3–2

Quarter-finals

Lukko – Ilves 3-0
19.4.2021 Lukko Ilves 5-3 ref
20.4.2021 Lukko Ilves 4-1 ref
22.4.2021 Ilves Lukko 2-5 ref
Lukko wins the series 3-0.
TPS – Pelicans 3-2
19.4.2021 TPS Pelicans 3-5 ref
20.4.2021 TPS Pelicans 2-0 ref
22.4.2021 Pelicans TPS 2-3 ref
23.4.2021 Pelicans TPS 5-3 ref
25.4.2021 TPS Pelicans 2-1 ref
TPS wins the series 3-2.
HIFK – Kärpät 3-0
19.4.2021 HIFK Kärpät 3-2 ref
20.4.2021 HIFK Kärpät 5-4 OT2 ref
22.4.2021 Kärpät HIFK 2-5 ref
HIFK wins the series 3-0.
Tappara – KalPa 3-1
19.4.2021 Tappara KalPa 1-0 ref
20.4.2021 Tappara KalPa 3-4 OT2 ref
22.4.2021 KalPa Tappara 1-2 ref
23.4.2021 KalPa Tappara 2-3 ref
Tappara wins the series 3-1.

Semi-finals

Lukko – Tappara 3-1
29.4.2021 Lukko Tappara 3-2 OT1 ref
30.4.2021 Lukko Tappara 1-4 ref
2.5.2021 Tappara Lukko 1-4 ref
3.5.2021 Tappara Lukko 0-1 ref
Lukko wins the series 3-1.
HIFK – TPS 1-3
29.4.2021 HIFK TPS 4-1 ref
30.4.2021 HIFK TPS 2-3 OT1 ref
2.5.2021 TPS HIFK 3-0 ref
3.5.2021 TPS HIFK 3-2 OT1 ref
TPS wins the series 3-1.

Bronze medal game

6 May 2021
18:30		HIFK7–1
(4–0, 3–0, 0–1)		TapparaHelsinki Ice Hall, Helsinki
Game reference
Frans TuohimaaGoaliesChristian Heljanko
Dominik Hrachovina		Referees:
Antti Boman
Jani Luoma-aho
Linesmen:
Niko Jusi
Joni Pekkala
J. Saarinen (D. Bernhardt, J. Jääskä) – 04:371–0
J. Sallinen (V. Varakas, V. Leskinen) – 05:482–0
M-M Åsten (E. Teräväinen, J. Motin) (PP1) – 14:563–0
H. Borgström (V. Leskinen, A. Lundell) (PP1) – 15:444–0
J. Sallinen (V. Leskinen, A. Lundell) – 20:325–0
T. Tallberg (S. Dyk, A. Broadhurst) – 21:166–0
V. Varakas (A. Broadhurst, S. Dyk) – 24:267–0
7–145:51 – J. Peltola (A. Levtchi, M. Moravčík)
2 minPenalties27 min
30Shots20

Finals

7 May 2021
18:30		Lukko1–4
(0–1, 1–1, 0–2)		TPSKivikylän Areena, Rauma
Game reference
Lassi LehtinenGoaliesKarri RämöReferees:
Lassi Heikkinen
Kristian Vikman
Linesmen:
Joona Elonen
Markus Hägerström
0–111:55 – H. Larsson (R. Ishakov, J. Kestner) (PP1)
0–223:16 – T. Haapanen (J. Pärssinen, L. Pajuniemi)
R. Press (T. Gregoire, A. Saarela) (PP1) – 33:451–2
1–352:53 – L. Pajuniemi
1–456:24 – L. Pajuniemi (M. Pyyhtiä)
42 minPenalties35 min
36Shots19
8 May 2021
17:00		Lukko4–0
(0–0, 2–0, 2–0)		TPSKivikylän Areena, Rauma
Game reference
Lassi LehtinenGoaliesAndrei KareyevReferees:
Antti Boman
Mikko Kaukokari
Linesmen:
Onni Hautamäki
Jussi Thomann
E. Koivistoinen (V. Saarijärvi, P. Skalický) – 34:351–0
A. Saarela (S. Repo, V. Saarijärvi) – 36:372–0
T. Gregoire (H. Liedes) – 51:183–0
S. Repo (V. Saarijärvi, E. Koivistoinen) (ENG) – 58:194–0
4 minPenalties8 min
41Shots13
10 May 2021
16:00		TPS1–3
(0–1, 0–0, 1–2)		LukkoGatorade Center, Turku
Game reference
Karri RämöGoaliesLassi LehtinenReferees:
Antti Boman
Mikko Kaukokari
Linesmen:
Joona Elonen
Markus Hägerström
0–117:21 – R. Press (PS)
0–258:15 – S. Repo (A. Saarela) (ENG)
0–358:46 – P. Skalický (H. Liedes, E. Koivistoinen) (ENG)
A. Intonen (T. Haapanen, J. Janatuinen) – 59:511–3
10 minPenalties8 min
22Shots29
11 May 2021
16:00		TPS2–6
(0–2, 2–2, 0–2)		LukkoGatorade Center, Turku
Game reference
Karri RämöGoaliesLassi LehtinenReferees:
Antti Boman
Mikko Kaukokari
Linesmen:
Joona Elonen
Markus Hägerström
0–111:01 – T. Koivisto (E. Koivistoinen, R. Press)
0–216:08 – J. Mattila (K. Pospíšil, P. Skalický)
J. Kestner (H. Larsson) – 28:121–2
A. Anttalainen (J. Pärssinen) – 33:232–2
2–334:57 – P. Skalický (K. Pospíšil)
2–436:29 – E. Koivistoinen (A. Hakulinen, J. Tammela)
2–556:05 – H. Liedes (V. Saarijärvi) (SH1, ENG)
2–656:33 – E. Koivistoinen (S. Repo, L. Klok) (SH1, ENG)
8 minPenalties4 min
16Shots24

Lukko wins the finals 3-1.

Final rankings

Lukko
TPS
HIFK
4 Tappara
5 KalPa
6 Pelicans
7 Kärpät
8 Ilves
9 KooKoo
10 Sport
11 HPK
12 Ässät
13 SaiPa
14 Jukurit
15 JYP

See also

References

  1. "Liiga jatkuu ensi viikolla - joulukuun ottelut pelataan ilman yleisöä | Uutiset | Liiga" (in Finnish). Liiga.fi. 2020-12-12. Retrieved 2021-01-12.
  2. "SaiPa joutui koviin ratkaisuihin - valmennus ja urheilujohto lomautettiin | Yle Urheilu | yle.fi" (in Finnish). Yle.fi. 2020-11-08. Retrieved 2021-01-12.
  3. "Jukurit vaihtaa päävalmentajaa | Uutiset | Liiga" (in Finnish). Liiga.fi. 2021-03-12. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  4. "Pistekeskiarvo määrää Liigan runkosarjansijoitukset | Uutiset | Liiga" (in Finnish). Liiga.fi. 2021-03-15. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  5. "Joukkuetilastot | Runkosarja 2020-2021 | Tilastot | Liiga". Liiga.fi. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  6. "Liiga avaa kevään playoffs-ohjelmaa – Ensimmäisellä kierroksella pelataan CHL-formaatilla | Uutiset | Liiga" (in Finnish). Liiga.fi. 2021-04-02. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
  7. ^ "Liigan playoffs-ohjelma julkaistu – Näillä askelmerkeillä ratkaisupeleihin | Uutiset | Liiga" (in Finnish). Liiga.fi. 2021-04-12. Retrieved 2021-04-12.

External links

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2020–21 in men's ice hockey
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