2016–17 Mestis season

The 2016–17 Mestis season was the 17th season of Mestis, the second highest level of ice hockey in Finland after Liiga. Previous seasons champion Jukurit got a place in the Liiga. IPK got promoted from Suomi-sarja at the end of last season. Espoo United got a place in Mestis after Espoo Blues suffered bankruptcy and the league was exceptionally played with 13 teams.

2016–17 Mestis
LeagueMestis
SportIce hockey
DurationSeptember 2016 – March 2017
Number of teams13
Regular season
Best recordSaPKo
  Runners-upTuTo
Top scorerJonatan Tanus
Relegated to Suomi-sarjaJYP-Akatemia
Playoffs
Playoffs MVPTeemu Lepaus
Finals championsSaPKo
  Runners-upKiekko-Vantaa
Mestis seasons

At the end of the season SaPKo won both the regular season and the playoffs. Hokki and IPK retained their place in Mestis, while JYP-Akatemia was relegated. Hokki faced bankruptcy during the off-season and thus Imatran Ketterä were awarded a place in Mestis for the next season.

Clubs

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Team City Home arena, capacity Founded Head coach
Espoo United Espoo Espoo Metro Areena, 6,982 2016   Timo Hirvonen
Hermes Kokkola Kokkolan jäähalli, 4,200 1953   Antti Karhula
Hokki Kajaani Kajaanin Jäähalli, - 1968   Jari Laukkanen
Iisalmen Peli-Karhut Iisalmi Kankaan jäähalli, - 1966   Jukka Niiranen17.1.2017
  Janne Sinkkonen
Jokipojat Joensuu Mehtimäki Ice Hall, 4,800 1953   Ari Aaltonen20.2.2017
  Jouni
JYP-Akatemia Jyväskylä Synergia Areena, 4,618 2008   Jukka Ahvenjärvi
KeuPa HT Keuruu Keuruun Jäähalli, 1,100 1995   Mikko Heiskanen
Kiekko-Vantaa Vantaa Trio Areena, 3,700 1994   Simo Mälkiä
LeKi Lempäälä Masku Areena, 800 1904   Miikka Kuusela
Peliitat Heinola Versowood Areena, 2,975 1984   Marko Tuomainen
Rovaniemen Kiekko Rovaniemi Lappi Areena, 3,500 1979   Petteri Hirvonen13.2.2017
  Juha Juujärvi
SaPKo Savonlinna Talvisalo ice rink, 2,833 1929   Pasi Räsänen
Tuto Turku Marli Areena, 3,000 1929   Miika Elomo

Regular season

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Top eight advance to the Mestis playoffs while the bottom two face the top two teams from Suomi-sarja for a relegation playoff. Since the highest series of Finnish hockey is a closed series no team will be promoted to Liiga.

Pos Team Pld W OTW OTL L GF GA GD Pts Final Result
1 SaPKo 50 32 5 2 11 181 110 +71 108 Advance to playoffs
2 Tuto 50 28 3 2 17 167 114 +53 92
3 Kiekko-Vantaa 50 22 4 9 15 148 139 +9 83
4 Hermes 50 22 5 4 19 160 139 +21 80
5 Espoo United 50 20 5 7 18 132 138 −6 77
6 Jokipojat 50 18 5 8 19 136 143 −7 72
7 Peliitat 50 19 5 5 21 152 164 −12 72
8 KeuPa HT 50 19 6 3 22 144 156 −12 72
9 LeKi 50 20 3 2 25 143 155 −12 68
10 RoKi 50 16 7 3 24 148 154 −6 65
11 Hokki 50 15 6 8 21 116 135 −19 65 Qualification to the relegation playoffs
12 JYP-Akatemia 50 18 4 3 25 129 161 −32 65
13 Iisalmen Peli-Karhut 50 16 2 4 28 114 162 −48 56

Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Penalty minutes.[1]

Playoffs

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Playoffs are being played in three stages. Each stage is a best-of-7 series. The teams are reseeded after the quarterfinals, so that the best team by regular season performance to make the semifinals faces the worst team in the semifinals.

Bracket

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Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
         
1 SaPKo 4
8 KeuPa HT 0
1 SaPKo 4
5 Espoo United 0
4 Hermes 2
5 Espoo United 4
1 SaPKo 4
3 Kiekko-Vantaa 0
2 Kiekko-Vantaa 4
7 Jokipojat 0
2 TuTo 2 Third place
3 Kiekko-Vantaa 4
3 Tuto 4 2 TuTo 0
6 Peliitat 0 5 Espoo United 1

Relegation qualification

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Bottom three teams of Mestis face the top two teams of Suomi-Sarja in a relegation qualification, where two top teams will get a place in Mestis for the next season. Each team will play against each other twice.

Pos Team Pld W OTW OTL L GF GA GD Pts Final Result
1 Hokki 8 6 0 0 2 33 15 +18 18 Play in Mestis for 2017–18 season
2 Iisalmen Peli-Karhut 11 5 1 1 4 26 16 +10 18
3 Ketterä 8 4 0 0 4 28 24 +4 12 Play in Suomi-sarja for 2017–18 season
4 JYP-Akatemia 8 3 0 1 4 19 22 −3 10
5 JHT 8 0 1 0 7 14 43 −29 2

Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Penalty minutes.[2]

See also

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2016–17 Liiga season

References

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  1. ^ "Sarjataulukko". Jatkoaika.com. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  2. ^ "Sarjataulukko". Jatkoaika.com. Retrieved 2018-03-05.