Naisten Liiga (ice hockey)

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For the women's football league previously called the Naisten Liiga, see Kansallinen Liiga.

Naisten Liiga
Upcoming season or competition:
Current sports event 2021–22 Naisten Liiga season
Naisten Liiga logo 2020.png
FormerlyNaisten SM-sarja
1982–2017
SportIce hockey
Founded1982 (1982)
Inaugural seasonas Naisten SM-sarja,
1982–83
as Naisten Liiga,
2017–18
AdministratorFinnish Ice Hockey Association
No. of teams10 in Preliminaries
6 in Regular season, 6 in Lower division series
Country Finland
Most recent
champion(s)		Kiekko-Espoo
(2020–21)
Most titlesKiekko-Espoo (15)
TV partner(s)Ruutu
Fanseat
Relegation toNaisten Mestis
International cup(s)European Women's Champions Cup
Official websiteleijonat.fi

Naisten Liiga ('Women's League'), also called the Naisten SM-liiga (NSML) and Jääkiekon naisten SM-liiga ('Ice Hockey Women's Finnish Championship League'), is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Finland. Until 2017, it was called the Naisten SM-sarja ('Women's Finnish Championship Series').[1][2] The league has 12 total teams between two divisions and is organized by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association.

Kiekko-Espoo (previously “Espoo Blues” and “Espoo United”) has dominated Naisten Liiga in the 21st century, winning 15 Finnish Championships from 1999 to 2021.[3] Tampereen Ilves Naiset is the second most successful club, with 10 championship titles, and are the only organization to have iced a team in every season since the league's inception.

A majority of teams in Naisten Liiga share their names with men's professional teams in the Liiga or Mestis – HIFK, HPK, Ilves, KalPa, Kiekko-Espoo, Kärpät, RoKi, TPS, and Sport – but the women's teams have historically received few resources and limited promotion from the affiliated men's clubs.[4] In recent years progress has been made in building better relationships between the men's and women's teams; most men's clubs now provide some support to their women's counterparts by advertising games together or helping secure sponsorships.[5][6]

Teams[]

2021–22 season[]

Location of teams in the Naisten Liiga
Team Location Home venue Head coach Captain
Stadin Gimmat
or HIFK Naiset 		Helsinki.vaakuna.svg Helsinki Saara Niemi
HPK Kiekkonaiset Hämeenlinna.vaakuna.svg Hämeenlinna Riikka Noronen
Ilves Naiset Tampere.vaakuna.svg Tampere Linda Leppänen
KalPa Naiset Kuopio.vaakuna.svg Kuopio Niiralan Monttu Marjo Voutilainen
Kiekko-Espoo Naiset Espoo.vaakuna.svg Espoo Tapiolan harjoitusareena
Kärpät Naiset Oulu.vaakuna.svg Oulu Raksilan jäähalli
RoKi Naiset Rovaniemi.vaakuna.svg Rovaniemi Lappi Areena
Sport Naiset Vaasa.vaakuna.svg Vaasa Vaasan Sähkö Arena
Team Kuortane Kuortane.vaakuna.svg Kuortane Kuortaneen jäähalli Mira Kuisma
TPS Naiset Turku.vaakuna.svg Turku Kupittaan jäähalli Terhi Mertanen

Past participants[]

Sources:[7][8]

Format[]

Season format[]

The season format of the Naisten Liiga has changed many times over the league's history. The format described here was introduced for the 2019–20 season.[9]

Preliminaries

The preliminaries (Finnish: Alkusarja, lit. 'initial series') are played as a double round-robin plus a two-game Opening Weekend Tournament; each of the ten teams plays a total of twenty matches. Points are awarded by match outcome: three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime win, one point for an overtime loss, and no points/zero points for a regulation loss. The points earned in the opening series determine which division a team will be sorted for the continuation of the season.

Regular season

The regular season, also called the upper division series (Finnish: Ylempi jatkosarja), is played by the top six teams from the preliminaries. Like the preliminaries, the series is played as a double round-robin, with each team playing a total of ten games. All six teams in the regular season are guaranteed placement in the playoffs; the cumulative points earned in the thirty games of the preliminaries and regular season are used to establish the teams' playoff berths, from first to sixth. Only points scored in the upper division series are considered when determining the players who will receive the Marianne Ihalainen Award, for most regular season points earned, and the Tiia Reima Award, for most regular season goals scored; players in the lower division series ineligible for the awards.

Lower division series

The bottom four teams from the preliminary series move on to the lower division series (Finnish: Alempi jatkosarja), where they are joined by the top two teams from the cross-qualifiers (Finnish: Ristiinkarsinta) of the Naisten Mestis, the league directly below Naisten Liiga. The lower division series teams compete for the seventh and eighth seed positions in the playoffs; only the top two ranked teams from the lower division earn placement in the playoffs. Unlike the regular season, all lower division teams start the divisional series with zero points, only points earned in the series are considered when the teams are ranked.

Qualifiers

The lower division teams ranked third through sixth continue on to the qualifiers (Finnish: Karsintasarja). The points earned in the six qualifying series games are added to the points totals from the lower division series. The two teams with the highest point totals qualify for the following Naisten Liiga season, the two lower ranked teams are relegated to or remain in the Naisten Mestis for the following season.

Game format[]

Further information: Ice hockey

A regulation game is sixty minutes in length, played over three 20-minute periods. In the event of a tie at the end of regulation time the winner is decided by a five-minute-length, three-skaters-per-side overtime period. If the game remains tied after the overtime period, the teams proceed to a shootout, in which each team designates three skaters to take penalty shots, one at a time, against the opposing goaltender. Teams alternate shots and each team takes one shot per round. The winner is the team with more goals after three rounds or the team that amasses an unreachable advantage before the third round. If the shootout is tied after three rounds, tie-breaker rounds are played one at a time until there is a winner.

Champions[]

All-time medal count[]

  – team currently in league

Team Gold medal icon.svg Silver medal icon.svg Bronze medal icon.svg
Kiekko-Espoo[a] 15 2 8
Tampereen Ilves 10 12 6
Oulun Kärpät 3 7 7
3 4 1
JYP Jyväskaylä[b] 3 4 0
(HJK) 2 1 1
(EVU) 1 5 1
Hämeenlinnan Pallokerho (HPK) 1 1 4
Kalevan Pallo (KalPa) 0 1 3
(IHK) 0 1 0
HIFK/Stadin Gimmat 0 0 3
(SaiPa) 0 0 1
Vaasan Sport 0 0 1
Team Kuortane 0 0 1

Notes:

  1. ^ Includes record of Espoo Blues, Espoo United, and Espoon Kiekkoseura (EKS)
  2. ^ Includes record of JyP HT

Sources:[10][11][12]

Women's Finnish Champions by season[]

Naisten Liiga logo, 2017–2020
Season Gold Champion Silver Runner-up Bronze Third Place
1982–83 Ilves Tampere
1983–84 HJK Helsinki EVU Vantaa Ilves Tampere
1984–85 Ilves Tampere EVU Vantaa HJK Helsinki
1985–86 Ilves Tampere HJK Helsinki Vaasan Sport
1986–87 Ilves Tampere EVU Vantaa
1987–88 Ilves Tampere EVU Vantaa HIFK Helsinki
1988–89 EVU Vantaa Ilves Tampere HIFK Helsinki
1989–90 Ilves Tampere EVU Vantaa
1990–91 Ilves Tampere Shakers Kerava [a]
1991–92 Ilves Tampere Shakers Kerava EKS Espoo[a]
1992–93 Ilves Tampere Shakers Kerava Kiekko-Espoo
1993–94 Shakers Kerava Ilves Tampere Kiekko-Espoo
1994–95 Shakers Kerava Ilves Tampere KalPa Kuopio
1995–96 Shakers Kerava Oulun Kärpät KalPa Kuopio
1996–97 JyP HT Jyväskylä[b] Shakers Kerava Kiekko-Espoo
1997–98 JYP Jyväskylä Oulun Kärpät Kiekko-Espoo
1998–99 Espoo Blues[a] JYP Jyväskylä Ilves Tampere
1999-2000 Espoo Blues[a] Oulun Kärpät Ilves Tampere
2000–01 Espoo Blues[a] Oulun Kärpät Ilves Tampere
2001–02 Espoo Blues[a] Oulun Kärpät
2002–03 Espoo Blues[a] Oulun Kärpät Ilves Tampere
2003–04 Espoo Blues[a] Ilves Tampere Oulun Kärpät
2004–05 Espoo Blues[a] Ilves Tampere Oulun Kärpät
2005–06 Ilves Tampere Oulun Kärpät Espoo Blues[a]
2006–07 Espoo Blues[a] Oulun Kärpät IHK Helsinki
2007–08 Espoo Blues[a] Ilves Tampere Oulun Kärpät
2008–09 Espoo Blues[a] Ilves Tampere HPK Hämeenlinna
2009–10 Ilves Tampere Espoo Blues[a] HPK Hämeenlinna
2010–11 HPK Hämeenlinna Ilves Tampere Oulun Kärpät
2011–12 Oulun Kärpät Ilves Tampere HPK Hämeenlinna
2012–13 Espoo Blues[a] JYP Jyväskylä Oulun Kärpät
2013–14 Espoo Blues[a] JYP Jyväskylä HPK Hämeenlinna
2014–15 Espoo Blues[a] JYP Jyväskylä Ilves Tampere
2015–16 JYP Jyväskylä HPK Hämeenlinna Espoo Blues[a]
2016–17 Oulun Kärpät Espoo United[a] KalPa Kuopio
2017–18 Oulun Kärpät Ilves Tampere Team Kuortane
2018–19 Espoo Blues[a] Ilves Tampere Oulun Kärpät
2019–20[c] Post-season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.
2020–21 Kiekko-Espoo KalPa Kuopio HIFK Helsinki

Notes:

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Included in record of Kiekko-Espoo
  2. ^ Included in record of JYP
  3. ^ The 2019–20 Naisten Liiga post-season was cancelled by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association on 12 March 2020, citing public health concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The Aurora Borealis Cup Finnish Championship finals between Kiekko-Espoo and KalPa and the Finnish Championship Bronze Medal games between Team Kuortane and Kärpät were scheduled to begin on 14 March 2020. With the cancellation of the season, neither the Aurora Borealis Cup nor any Finnish Championship medals were awarded for the 2019–20 season.[13]

Sources:[10][11][12][14]

League records[]

All-time records of the Naisten SM-sarja and Naisten Liiga combined, from 1982 to 1983 through the conclusion of the 2020–21 season.[15][16]

Single-season records[]

  • Most goals in a season: Riikka Sallinen, 73 goals (21 games; 1993–94, Shakers Kerava)
  • Most assists in a season: Jenni Hiirikoski, 62 assists (28 games; 2015–16, JYP Jyväskylä)
  • Most points in a season: Riikka Sallinen, 129 points (21 games; 1993–94, Shakers Kerava)
  • Most points in a season, defenceman: Jenni Hiirikoski, 79 points (29 games; 2015–16, JYP Jyväskylä )
  • Most penalty minutes in a season: , 98 PIM (15 games; 2011–12, LoKV)

Career records[]

  • Most career games played, skater: Riikka Noronen, 620 games (1995–2021)
  • Most career goals: Karoliina Rantamäki, 366 goals (376 games; 1992–2021)
  • Most career assists: Riikka Noronen, 437 assists (620 games; 1995–2021)
  • Most career points: Riikka Noronen, 763 points (620 games; 1995–2021)
  • Best career points per game, over 30 games played: Michelle Karvinen, 3.667 points per game (39 games; 2007–2009)
  • Most career points, defenceman: Päivi Halonen, 495 points (401 games; 1982–2006)
  • Most career penalty minutes: Rosa Lindstedt, 483 PIM (314 games; 2002–2016)
  • Most career games played, goaltender: , 218 games (2009–2021)

All-time scoring leaders[]

The top-ten point-scorers in Naisten SM-sarja/Naisten Liiga history. Statistics valid through conclusion of 2020–21 season.[15]

Note: Nat = Nationality; Pos = Position; S = Seasons played; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game;   = player active in 2021–22 Naisten Liiga season

Points
Nat Player Pos S GP G A Pts PIM
Finland Riikka Noronen F 26 625 326 437 763 428
Finland Linda Välimäki Leppänen F 16 332 360 342 702 176
Finland Karoliina Rantamäki F 17 376 366 314 680 102
Finland Petra Vaarakallio F 13 286 280 351 631 142
Finland Tiia Reima F 20 332 330 272 602 352
Finland Marianne Ihalainen F 19 323 320 282 602 152
Finland Sari Fisk Marjamäki F 23 401 339 253 592 158
Finland Anne Helin F 14 276 327 222 549 260
Finland Annina Rajahuhta F 15 325 239 298 537 240
Finland F 21 523 205 319 524 337

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Foster, Meredith (21 March 2017). "Finnish Women's Hockey League Unveils New Name, Logo". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  2. ^ Finnish Ice Hockey Association, ed. (21 March 2017). "Naisten SM-sarja historiaan - Ensi kaudella pelataan Naisten Liigaa". leijonat.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  3. ^ Foster, Meredith (26 March 2019). "The Espoo Blues are the 2019 Aurora Borealis Cup Champions". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  4. ^ Foster, Meredith (24 March 2017). "Women's Pro Hockey in Finland Tries to Get More Spotlight". The Victory Press. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  5. ^ Aykroyd, Lucas (29 March 2019). "Women's Worlds media round-table". International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  6. ^ Teiskonlahti, Kirsi (11 September 2018). "Naiskiekon arvostus on kasvanut, mutta ihannetilanteeseen on Suomessa vielä pitkä matka – kehitys vaatii hurmosta ja SM-liigaseurojen apua" [Appreciation for women's hockey has increased but it is far from an ideal situation in Finland - development will require funds and assistance from Liiga clubs] (in Finnish). YLE Sport. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  7. ^ Hunter, Andria (2008). "Finnish Women's Hockey League Results: 1990-91 to 1994-95". whockey.com. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  8. ^ Aaltonen, Juha, ed. (2019). Jääkiekkokirja: Suomen Jääkiekkoliiton ja Liigan Virallinen Kausijulkaisu 2019–2020 [The Ice Hockey Book: The Finnish Ice Hockey Association and Liiga Official Guide & Record Book 2019–2020] (PDF) (in Finnish). Layout by Joonas Ahola. Jääkiekon SM-liiga Oy & Suomen Jääkiekkoliito. Annamedia Oy. ISSN 0784-3321. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  9. ^ "Sarjatoiminta: Sarjojen pelaamistavat miehet, naiset ja A–C nuoret: Kaavio Naisten Sarjat 19-20" (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. June 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b "Liiga (W)". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b "Compétitions nationales: Finlande hockey féminin 1997-98 to 2014-15". Hockey Archives (in French). Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b "Naisten Liiga details". eurohockey.com. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  13. ^ Mennander, Pasi (12 March 2020). "Koronavirus lopettaa Jääkiekkoliiton alaisten sarjojen kauden". leijonat.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Archived from the original on 24 March 2020. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  14. ^ Salmela, Sari; Pelkonen, Johanna (2008). "SM-sarjan historiaa vuosilta 1982 - 2008" [History of the SM-sarja from 1982 to 2008]. leijonat.fi (in Finnish). Archived from the original on 6 September 2008. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b Suomen Jääkiekkoliitto; Jääkiekkon SM-liiga Oy (2020). Aaltonen, Juha (ed.). Jääkiekkokirja 2021: Suomen Jääkiekkoliiton ja Liiga Kausijulkaisu 2020–2021 [Ice Hockey Book 2021: The Finnish Ice Hockey Association and Liiga Guide & Record Book 2020–2021] (PDF) (in Finnish). Helsinki: Uusi Suomi/Kiekkolehti. p. 237. ISSN 0784-3321.
  16. ^ "Naisten Liiga (W) - All-time totals". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 28 March 2021.

External links[]

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