2017–18 Mestis season

The 2017–18 Mestis season is the 18th season of Mestis, the second highest level of ice hockey in Finland after Liiga. Imatran Ketterä was promoted from Suomi-sarja at the end of last season, while JYP-Akatemia and Hokki faced bankruptcy and were relegated.

2017–18 Mestis
League	Mestis
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	September 2017 – March 2018
Number of teams	12
Regular season
Best record	KeuPa HT
Runners-up	SaPKo
Top scorer	Joona Jääskeläinen
Playoffs
Finals champions	KeuPa HT
Runners-up	TUTO Hockey

Clubs

Team	City	Home arena, capacity	Founded	Head coach
Espoo United	Espoo	Espoo Metro Areena, 6,982	2016	Niko Marttila
Hermes	Kokkola	Kokkolan jäähalli, 4,200	1953	Antti Karhula 14.12.2017 Ari-Pekka Pajuluoma
IPK	Iisalmi	Kankaan jäähalli, 1,358	1966	Janne Sinkkonen
Jokipojat	Joensuu	Mehtimäki Ice Hall, 4,800	1953	Jouni Varis
Ketterä	Imatra	Imatra Spa Areena, 1,300	1957	Maso Lehtonen
KeuPa HT	Keuruu	Keuruun Jäähalli, 1,100	1995	Mikko Heiskanen
Kiekko-Vantaa	Vantaa	Trio Areena, 2,004	1994	Pasi Arvonen
LeKi	Lempäälä	Masku Areena, 900	1904	Miikka Kuusela
Peliitat	Heinola	Versowood Areena, 2,686	1984	Santeri Heiskanen 1.3.2018 Jani Keinänen
RoKi	Rovaniemi	Lappi Areena, 3,500	1979	Petri Karjalainen
SaPKo	Savonlinna	Talvisalo ice rink, 2,833	1929	Pasi Räsänen
TUTO Hockey	Turku	Marli Areena, 3,000	1929	Miika Elomo

Regular season

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	KeuPa HT	50	30	2	3	15	182	132	+50	97	Advance to playoffs
2	SaPKo	50	24	9	6	11	175	138	+37	96
3	Ketterä	50	25	4	5	16	180	159	+21	88
4	Kiekko-Vantaa	50	21	6	5	18	150	151	−1	80
5	TUTO Hockey	50	21	4	8	17	166	129	+37	79
6	Jokipojat	50	21	4	5	20	156	140	+16	76
7	IPK	50	19	5	5	21	141	161	−20	72
8	LeKi	50	16	9	5	20	146	149	−3	71
9	Espoo United	50	18	6	3	23	141	147	−6	69
10	RoKi	50	17	5	7	21	150	171	−21	68
11	Hermes	50	14	4	9	23	142	186	−44	59	Qualification to the relegation playoffs
12	Peliitat	50	9	7	4	30	153	219	−66	45

Source: Tilastopalvelu.fi

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

Playoffs

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

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	1	KeuPa HT	4
	8	LeKi	1
						1	KeuPa HT	4
						6	Jokipojat	0
	2	SaPKo	4
	7	IPK	2
											1	KeuPa HT	4
											5	TUTO Hockey	2
	3	Ketterä	0
	6	Jokipojat	4
						2	SaPKo	3			Third place
						5	TUTO Hockey	4
	4	Kiekko-Vantaa	1								2	SaPKo	1
	5	TUTO Hockey	4								6	Jokipojat	0

Quarterfinals

KeuPa HT – LeKi 4-1 10.3.2018 KeuPa HT LeKi 7-1 ref 12.3.2018 LeKi KeuPa HT 2-3 OT1 ref 14.3.2018 KeuPa HT LeKi 2-0 ref 16.3.2018 LeKi KeuPa HT 2-1 OT2 ref 17.3.2018 KeuPa HT LeKi 4-0 ref KeuPa HT wins the series 4-1. Ketterä – Jokipojat 0-4 10.3.2018 Ketterä Jokipojat 3-5 ref 12.3.2018 Jokipojat Ketterä 5-3 ref 14.3.2018 Ketterä Jokipojat 0-3 ref 16.3.2018 Jokipojat Ketterä 4-2 ref Jokipojat wins the series 4-0.

SaPKo – IPK 4-2 10.3.2018 SaPKo IPK 7-3 ref 12.3.2018 IPK SaPKo 6-3 ref 14.3.2018 SaPKo IPK 4-1 ref 16.3.2018 IPK SaPKo 7-6 ref 17.3.2018 SaPKo IPK 6-3 ref 19.3.2018 IPK SaPKo 4-5 OT1 ref SaPKo wins the series 4-2. Kiekko-Vantaa – TUTO Hockey 1-4 10.3.2018 Kiekko-Vantaa TUTO Hockey 3-2 OT1 ref 12.3.2018 TUTO Hockey Kiekko-Vantaa 6-2 ref 14.3.2018 Kiekko-Vantaa TUTO Hockey 2-3 ref 16.3.2018 TUTO Hockey Kiekko-Vantaa 3-0 ref 17.3.2018 Kiekko-Vantaa TUTO Hockey 1-2 ref TUTO Hockey wins the series 4-1.

Semifinals

KeuPa HT – Jokipojat 4-0 23.3.2018 KeuPa HT Jokipojat 3-2 OT1 ref 24.3.2018 Jokipojat KeuPa HT 1-2 ref 26.3.2018 KeuPa HT Jokipojat 7-2 ref 28.3.2018 Jokipojat KeuPa HT 2-3 ref KeuPa HT wins the series 4-0.

SaPKo – TUTO Hockey 3-4 23.3.2018 SaPKo TUTO Hockey 4-3 OT1 ref 24.3.2018 TUTO Hockey SaPKo 4-3 OT1 ref 27.3.2018 SaPKo TUTO Hockey 5-3 ref 29.3.2018 TUTO Hockey SaPKo 2-1 ref 31.3.2018 SaPKo TUTO Hockey 1-2 ref 1.4.2018 TUTO Hockey SaPKo 1-2 ref 3.4.2018 SaPKo TUTO Hockey 1-3 ref TUTO Hockey wins the series 4-3.

Bronze medal game

6 April 2018 18:30

SaPKo

3–1 (1–0, 0–0, 2–1)

Jokipojat

Winter Salon rink, Savonlinna Attendance: 1,187

Game reference
	22 min	Penalties	8 min
	35	Shots	30

Finals

6 April 2018 18:30

KeuPa HT

2–4 (0–2, 1–0, 1–2)

TUTO Hockey

Keuruu Ice Hall, Keuruu Attendance: 985

Game reference
	2 min	Penalties	2 min
	26	Shots	28

8 April 2018 17:00

TUTO Hockey

2–5 (0–4, 1–0, 1–1)

KeuPa HT

Kupittaan jäähalli, Turku Attendance: 2,018

Game reference
	12 min	Penalties	14 min
	47	Shots	31

11 April 2018 18:30

KeuPa HT

2–1 (1–1, 1–0, 0–0)

TUTO Hockey

Keuruu Ice Hall, Keuruu Attendance: 867

Game reference
	18 min	Penalties	8 min
	22	Shots	27

13 April 2018 18:15

TUTO Hockey

4–1 (1–0, 1–0, 2–1)

KeuPa HT

Kupittaan jäähalli, Turku Attendance: 1,809

Game reference
	4 min	Penalties	6 min
	37	Shots	24

14 April 2018 16:30

KeuPa HT

3–1 (1–0, 0–0, 2–1)

TUTO Hockey

Keuruu Ice Hall, Keuruu Attendance: 938

Game reference
	20 min	Penalties	22 min
	22	Shots	16

16 April 2018 18:15

TUTO Hockey

1–2 OT1 (0–1, 1–0, 0–0, 0–1)

KeuPa HT

Kupittaan jäähalli, Turku Attendance: 1,748

Game reference
	12 min	Penalties	14 min
	34	Shots	34

KeuPa HT wins the series 4-2.

Relegation playoffs

The bottom two teams will face the top two teams from Suomi-sarja for a best-of-7 series were the winners will get a place in Mestis for the next season.

Hermes – KOOVEE 4-1 16.3.2018 Hermes KOOVEE 1-3 ref 17.3.2018 KOOVEE Hermes 0-4 ref 21.3.2018 Hermes KOOVEE 4-2 ref 23.3.2018 KOOVEE Hermes 0-3 ref 24.3.2018 Hermes KOOVEE 2-0 ref Hermes wins the series 4-1 and avoids relegation.

Peliitat – JHT 4-0 16.3.2018 Peliitat JHT 4-2 ref 17.3.2018 JHT Peliitat 0-8 ref 21.3.2018 Peliitat JHT 4-1 ref 23.3.2018 JHT Peliitat 1-6 ref Peliitat wins the series 4-0 and avoids relegation.

No team got relegated from or promoted to Mestis for the next season.

See also

• 2017–18 Liiga season