2020–21 Mestis season

2020–21 Mestis
League	Mestis
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	September 2020 – April 2021
Number of teams	14
Regular season
Best record	K-Espoo
Runners-up	JoKP
Top scorer	(KeuPa HT)
Playoffs
Playoffs MVP	Marlo Koponen (Ketterä)
Finals champions	Ketterä
Runners-up	Hermes
Mestis seasons
← 2019–20 2021–22 →

The 2020–21 Mestis season was the 21st season of Mestis, the second highest level of ice hockey in Finland after Liiga. Due to promotion/relegation games being cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic in the last season both semi-finalists from last seasons Suomi-sarja (K-Espoo and FPS) were promoted to Mestis. Therefore this seasons consisted of 14 teams.^[1]

Clubs[]

Team	City	Home arena, capacity	Founded	Head coach
FPS	Forssa	Forssa Ice Hall, 3,000	1931
Hermes	Kokkola	Kokkolan jäähalli, 4,200	1953
Hokki	Kajaani	Kajaanin jäähalli, 2,372	1968
IPK	Iisalmi	, 1,358	1966
JoKP	Joensuu	PKS Areena, 4,800	1953	19.1.2021
Ketterä	Imatra	, 1,200	1957
KeuPa HT	Keuruu	, 1,100	1995
K-Espoo	Espoo	Espoo Metro Areena, 6,982	2018
K-Vantaa	Vantaa	, 2,004	1994	Mika Niskanen
KOOVEE	Tampere	Tampere Ice Stadium, 7,300	1929
Peliitat	Heinola	Versowood Areena, 2,686	1984
RoKi	Rovaniemi	Lappi Areena, 3,500	1979	Santeri Immonen
SaPKo	Savonlinna	Talvisalo ice rink, 2,833	1929
TUTO Hockey	Turku	Kupittaan jäähalli, 3,000	1929	Antti Virtanen

Regular season[]

Initially the plan was to have each team play 50 games in total but due to the season being on hold from 2nd December 2020 to 10th February 2021 the teams were unable to play the full season.^[2][3] Due to this points-per-game determines the order of the teams. SaPKo and RoKi decided not to continue the season when it resumed in February 2021.^[4]

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. Since the highest series of Finnish hockey is a closed series no team will be promoted to Liiga.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W+	Pts	PPG	Final Result
1	K-Espoo	31	17	6	8	108	84	24	3	60	1.94	Advance to Quarterfinals
2	JoKP	31	17	5	9	107	89	18	3	59	1.90
3	Ketterä	31	17	5	9	130	92	38	1	57	1.84
4	KeuPa HT	31	17	4	10	112	102	10	2	57	1.84
5	IPK	30	14	6	10	108	94	14	5	53	1.77
6	KOOVEE	28	13	3	12	89	93	−4	2	44	1.57
7	K-Vantaa	29	11	7	11	89	85	4	2	42	1.45	Advance to Wild-card round
8	TUTO Hockey	30	11	6	13	98	104	−6	3	42	1.40
9	Hermes	30	8	9	13	86	96	−10	4	37	1.23
10	Peliitat	31	9	5	17	92	113	−21	4	36	1.16
11	FPS	30	10	1	19	77	103	−26	1	32	1.07
12	Hokki	30	6	7	17	79	107	−28	2	27	0.90
13	SaPKo	18	6	5	7	62	68	−6	4	27	1.50	Did not finish the season
14	RoKi	18	7	3	8	57	64	−7	0	24	1.33

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

Playoffs[]

Playoffs are being played in four stages. Each stage before the final is a best-of-3 series, with the final being a best-of-5 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[]

	Wild-card round (best-of-3)					Quarter-finals (best-of-3)					Semi-finals (best-of-3)					Finals (best-of-5)
						1	K-Espoo	0
						9	Hermes	2
											2	JoKP	0
											9	Hermes	2
	7	K-Vantaa	2
	10	Peliitat	0
						2	JoKP	2
						7	K-Vantaa	1
																3	Ketterä	3
	(Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round)
																9	Hermes	2
						3	Ketterä	2
						6	KOOVEE	0
	8	TUTO Hockey	1
	9	Hermes	2
											3	Ketterä	2
											5	IPK	0
																Bronze medal game
						4	KeuPa HT	1								2	JoKP	0
						5	IPK	2								5	IPK	4

Wild-card round[]

Quarter-finals[]

Semi-finals[]

Bronze medal game[]

21 April 2021 18:30

JoKP

0–4 (0–1, 0–1, 0–2)

IPK

PKS Areena, Joensuu Attendance: 20

Game reference
		Goalies		Referees: Jani Pesonen Ville-Veikko Väkeväinen Linesmen: Joonas Hurskainen Markus Peltola
	0–1 03:33 – (, ) 0–2 33:17 – M. Juusola (T. Kokkola, V. Järvinen) 0–3 46:19 – J. Hämäläinen (J. Nevalainen) 0–4 56:36 – N. Koskinen (J. Nevalainen) (ENG)
	14 min	Penalties	4 min
	16	Shots	30

Finals[]

20 April 2021 18:30

Ketterä

2–3 (1–1, 1–0, 0–2)

Hermes

, Imatra Attendance: 6

Game reference
		Goalies	Joel Blomqvist	Referees: Antti Hölli Pasi Nieminen Linesmen: Marko Aalto Janne Laukkala
	0–1 11:50 – (, ) () – 13:22 1–1 N. Ahoniemi (, ) (PP1) – 20:28 2–1 2–2 49:05 – (, ) 2–3 57:07 – (, ) (PP1)
	6 min	Penalties	4 min
	48	Shots	29

22 April 2021 18:30

Hermes

2–7 (1–3, 1–0, 0–4)

Ketterä

Kokkolan jäähalli, Kokkola Attendance: 20

Game reference
		Goalies		Referees: Jonne Mäkisalo Joona Vares Linesmen: Petteri Niemelä Miro Skinnarla
	0–1 01:39 – (, ) – 06:04 1–1 1–2 11:09 – 1–3 16:45 – N. Ahoniemi (, ) (PP1) (, ) – 35:34 2–3 2–4 51:15 – (R. Mäkitalo) 2–5 56:53 – (J-M Alanen, ) (ENG) 2–6 58:14 – R. Mäkitalo (ENG) 2–7 59:59 – E. Luhanka (, ) (PP1)
	12 min	Penalties	4 min
	26	Shots	32

24 April 2021 17:00

Ketterä

5–9 (4–2, 0–2, 1–5)

Hermes

, Imatra Attendance: 6

Game reference
		Goalies	Joel Blomqvist	Referees: Pasi Nieminen Antti Hölli Linesmen: Janne Laukkala Marko Aalto
	– 03:53 1–0 (, ) – 05:50 2–0 2–1 07:06 – (, ) (PP1) () – 11:10 3–1 (, M. Koponen) – 15:50 4–1 4–2 19:34 – (E. Ahopelto) 4–3 34:08 – S. Vesterinen (, ) 4–4 39:18 – (S. Vesterinen, ) 4–5 41:46 – E. Takala (E. Paasovaara, E. Ahopelto) (PP1) 4–6 43:28 – H. Harju (, Z. Sedlák) 4–7 46:05 – E. Ahopelto (E. Paasovaara, ) 4–8 49:59 – V. Heikkala (, A. Lausniemi) 4–9 51:21 – (H. Limma) S. Tanhua () – 56:28 5–9
	35 min	Penalties	8 min
	29	Shots	29

27 April 2021 18:30

Hermes

3–4 2OT (1–2, 1–1, 1–0, 0–0, 0–1)

Ketterä

Kokkolan jäähalli, Kokkola Attendance: 20

Game reference
	Joel Blomqvist	Goalies		Referees: Jonne Mäkitalo Joona Vares Linesmen: Petteri Niemelä Miro Skinnarla
	(, ) – 06:44 1–0 1–1 09:11 – M. Haaparanta (J-M Alanen, ) 1–2 09:59 – (J. Hallikas, ) 1–3 21:41 – () Z. Sedlák (, ) (PP1) – 35:46 2–3 Z. Sedlák (, O. Uomala) (PP1) – 41:03 3–3 3–4 91:15 – ()
	8 min	Penalties	10 min
	49	Shots	47

29 April 2021 18:30

Ketterä

8–3 (3–2, 4–0, 1–1)

Hermes

, Imatra Attendance: 6

Game reference
		Goalies	Joel Blomqvist	Referees: Joona Vares Jonne Mäkisalo Linesmen: Miro Skinnarla Petteri Niemelä
	(, M. Koponen) – 00:46 1–0 (, ) – 02:32 2–0 J-M Alanen (M. Haaparanta, ) – 03:08 3–0 3–1 06:26 – () 3–2 18:17 – (, ) (PP1) R. Mäkitalo () (SH1) – 25:46 4–2 R. Mäkitalo (A. Rämö, R. Reini) (PP1) – 27:23 5–2 H. Karjalainen (R. Reini) (PP1) – 28:31 6–2 H. Karjalainen (J-M Alanen, N. Ahoniemi) – 31:11 7–2 7–3 47:51 – (, ) M. Haaparanta (J-M Alanen, N. Ahoniemi) – 50:16 8–3
	8 min	Penalties	14 min
	30	Shots	38

Ketterä wins the finals 3-2.

See also[]

• 2020–21 Liiga season

References[]