2022–23 Liiga season

The 2022–23 Liiga season was the 48th season of the Liiga, the top level of ice hockey in Finland, since the league's formation in 1975.

2022–23 Liiga
League	Liiga
Sport	Ice hockey
Defending champions	Tappara (2021–22)
Duration	September 2022 – April 2023
Number of games	60
Number of teams	15
TV partner(s)	Telia C More
Regular season
Best record	Tappara
Runners-up	Ilves
Season MVP	Michael Joly (HPK)
Top scorer	Michael Joly (HPK)
Playoffs
Playoffs MVP	Veli-Matti Savinainen (Tappara)
Finals champions	Tappara
Runners-up	Pelicans

Teams

Jukurit

HIFK

HPK

Ilves
Tappara

JYP

KalPa

KooKoo

Kärpät

Lukko

Pelicans

SaiPa

Ässät

Sport

TPS

Location of teams in 2022–23 SM-liiga

Team	City	Head coach	Arena	Capacity	Captain
HIFK	Helsinki	Ville Peltonen	Helsingin jäähalli	8,200	Teemu Tallberg
HPK	Hämeenlinna	Jarno Pikkarainen	Pohjantähti Areena	5,360	Juuso Hietanen
Ilves	Tampere	Jouko Myrrä 5 Oct 2022[1] Antti Pennanen	Nokia Arena	13,000	Eemeli Suomi
Jukurit	Mikkeli	Olli Jokinen	Ikioma Areena	4,200	Juhamatti Aaltonen
JYP	Jyväskylä	Jukka Rautakorpi	LähiTapiola Areena	4,437	Robert Rooba
KalPa	Kuopio	Tommi Miettinen	Olvi Areena	5,300	Tuomas Kiiskinen
KooKoo	Kouvola	Olli Salo	Lumon Areena	5,950	Heikki Liedes
Kärpät	Oulu	Lauri Marjamäki	Oulun Energia Areena	6,400	Atte Ohtamaa
Lukko	Rauma	Marko Virtanen	Kivikylän Areena	4,700	Anrei Hakulinen
Pelicans	Lahti	Tommi Niemelä	Isku Areena	5,371	Miika Roine
SaiPa	Lappeenranta	Pekka Virta 14 Oct 2022[2] Ville Hämäläinen	Lappeenrannan jäähalli	4,820	Jarno Koskiranta
Sport	Vaasa	Risto Dufva	Vaasan Sähkö Areena	5,185	Sebastian Stålberg
Tappara	Tampere	Jussi Tapola	Nokia Arena	13,000	Otto Rauhala
TPS	Turku	Jussi Ahokas	Gatorade Center	11,820	Juhani Jasu
Ässät	Pori	Karri Kivi	West Areena	6,150	Jesse Joensuu

Regular season

Ässät celebrating a regular season victory against Jukurit on 15 October 2022

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.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final Result
1	Tappara	60	33	6	5	16	187	140	+47	116	Advance to Quarterfinals
2	Ilves	60	32	7	4	17	185	126	+59	114
3	Lukko	60	28	8	5	19	155	122	+33	105
4	Pelicans	60	30	4	5	21	166	136	+30	103
5	KalPa	60	28	5	8	19	169	145	+24	102
6	HIFK	60	24	8	9	19	155	150	+5	97
7	Kärpät	60	24	7	10	19	158	143	+15	96	Advance to Wild-card round
8	Ässät	60	25	5	6	24	129	150	−21	91
9	TPS	60	21	10	8	21	141	140	+1	91
10	KooKoo	60	19	11	5	25	155	167	−12	84
11	Jukurit	60	24	5	1	30	155	165	−10	83
12	HPK	60	17	9	14	20	153	162	−9	83
13	JYP	60	17	9	5	29	159	172	−13	74
14	Sport	60	16	3	9	32	126	177	−51	63
15	SaiPa	60	8	7	10	35	124	222	−98	48

Source: Liiga

^[3]

Scoring leaders

The following players led the league in regular season points.

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	+/–	PIM
Michael Joly	HPK	60	25	39	64	+9	18
Jori Lehterä	Tappara	57	11	46	57	+5	45
Jerry Turkulainen	JYP	60	12	42	54	–3	20
Petri Kontiola	Ilves	58	12	39	51	0	40
Jaakko Rissanen	KalPa	57	16	34	50	+17	26
Henrik Haapala	Ilves	47	15	32	47	+9	20
Les Lancaster	Ilves	60	13	34	47	+20	22
Joona Ikonen	Ilves	54	23	22	45	+9	16
Veli-Matti Savinainen	Tappara	54	17	27	44	+6	30
Thomas Gregoire	Lukko	57	13	31	44	+23	41

Playoffs

Bracket

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

Wild-card round

Kärpät – KooKoo 1-2 13.3.2023 Kärpät KooKoo 4-2 ref 14.3.2023 KooKoo Kärpät 4-1 ref 16.3.2023 Kärpät KooKoo 0-5 ref KooKoo wins the series 2-1.

Ässät – TPS 2-1 13.3.2023 Ässät TPS 2-1 ref 14.3.2023 TPS Ässät 2-1 ref 16.3.2023 Ässät TPS 2-1 ref Ässät wins the series 2-1.

Quarter-finals

Tappara – KooKoo 4-0 17.3.2023 Tappara KooKoo 4-0 ref 20.3.2023 KooKoo Tappara 1-6 ref 21.3.2023 Tappara KooKoo 2-1 OT1 ref 24.3.2023 KooKoo Tappara 0-3 ref Tappara wins the series 4-0. Lukko – HIFK 2-4 18.3.2023 Lukko HIFK 1-4 ref 20.3.2023 HIFK Lukko 1-0 OT1 ref 22.3.2023 Lukko HIFK 3-5 ref 24.3.2023 HIFK Lukko 1-2 OT1 ref 25.3.2023 Lukko HIFK 2-1 ref 27.3.2023 HIFK Lukko 3-2 OT1 ref HIFK wins the series 4-2.

Ilves – Ässät 4-1 18.3.2023 Ilves Ässät 5-1 ref 20.3.2023 Ässät Ilves 5-2 ref 22.3.2023 Ilves Ässät 4-1 ref 24.3.2023 Ässät Ilves 1-4 ref 26.3.2023 Ilves Ässät 3-2 ref Ilves wins the series 4-1. Pelicans – KalPa 4-3 17.3.2023 Pelicans KalPa 2-1 ref 18.3.2023 KalPa Pelicans 3-0 ref 20.3.2023 Pelicans KalPa 2-1 ref 22.3.2023 KalPa Pelicans 3-2 ref 24.3.2023 Pelicans KalPa 3-1 ref 25.3.2023 KalPa Pelicans 5-1 ref 28.3.2023 Pelicans KalPa 4-2 ref Pelicans wins the series 4-3.

Semi-finals

Tappara – HIFK 4-1 31.3.2023 HIFK Tappara 2-3 OT2 ref 1.4.2023 HIFK Tappara 4-2 ref 5.4.2023 Tappara HIFK 5-2 ref 7.4.2023 Tappara HIFK 5-2 ref 10.4.2023 Tappara HIFK 2-1 ref Tappara wins the series 4-1.

Ilves – Pelicans 2-4 31.3.2023 Pelicans Ilves 2-3 OT1 ref 1.4.2023 Pelicans Ilves 3-2 ref 6.4.2023 Ilves Pelicans 2-3 ref 8.4.2023 Ilves Pelicans 3-2 ref 11.4.2023 Ilves Pelicans 0-2 ref 13.4.2023 Pelicans Ilves 3-1 ref Pelicans wins the series 4-2.

Bronze medal game

20 April 2023 18:30

Ilves

3–2 (1–1, 1–0, 1–1)

HIFK

Nokia Arena, Tampere Attendance: 8,044

Game reference
	Marek Langhamer	Goalies	Roope Taponen	Referees: Jukka-Pekka Koistinen Mikko Kaukokari Linesmen: Jussi Thomann Juho-Pekka Inkinen
	0–1 06:05 – Pakarinen (Jääskä, Luhanka) Mäntykivi (Tikka) – 12:07 1–1 Tikka (Mäntykivi, Nyman) – 26:39 2–1 2–2 41:26 – Teissala (Melart, Rantakari) Virtanen (Koskiranta) – 48:23 3–2
	14 min	Penalties	10 min
	24	Shots	25

Finals

19 April 2023 18:30

Tappara

5–1 (1–0, 3–1, 1–0)

Pelicans

Nokia Arena, Tampere Attendance: 11,904

Game reference
	Christian Heljanko	Goalies	Patrik Bartošák Jasper Patrikainen	Referees: Mikko Kaukokari Lassi Heikkinen Linesmen: Hannu Sormunen Onni Hautamäki
	Tanus (Savinainen, Seppälä) – 07:29 1–0 1–1 21:46 – Vilén (Killinen, Kangasniemi) Savinainen (Kemiläinen) (PP) – 36:55 2–1 Vittasmäki (Levtchi, Tuulola) – 39:14 3–1 M. Davidsson (Jürgens, Ojamäki) – 39:45 4–1 Rauhala (Puhakka, Merelä) – 40:55 5–1
	4 min	Penalties	6 min
	24	Shots	19

21 April 2023 18:30

Pelicans

0–2 (0–1, 0–0, 0–1)

Tappara

Isku Areena, Lahti Attendance: 4,403

Game reference
	Patrik Bartošák	Goalies	Christian Heljanko	Referees: Antti Boman Joonas Kova Linesmen: Tommi Niittylä Joni Pekkala
	0–1 01:04 – Rauhala (Matushkin, Seppälä) 0–2 59:04 – Merelä (Lehterä, Savinainen) (EN)
	2 min	Penalties	31 min
	47	Shots	48

22 April 2023 17:00

Tappara

1–4 (0–1, 0–1, 1–2)

Pelicans

Nokia Arena, Tampere Attendance: 12,354

Game reference
	Christian Heljanko	Goalies	Patrik Bartošák	Referees: Joonas Kova Mikko Kaukokari Linesmen: Hannu Sormunen Onni Hautamäki
	0–1 19:36 – Utunen (Kangasniemi, Ikonen) 0–2 33:08 – Hirvonen (Jämsen, Utunen) Savinainen (Tanus) – 47:22 1–2 1–3 58:24 – Kangasniemi (Killinen) 1–4 59:27 – Jasek (Bryggman) (EN)
	10 min	Penalties	6 min
	51	Shots	37

25 April 2023 18:30

Pelicans

1–3 (0–1, 0–1, 1–1)

Tappara

Isku Areena, Lahti Attendance: 4,403

Game reference
	Patrik Bartošák	Goalies	Christian Heljanko	Referees: Antti Boman Jukka-Pekka Koistinen Linesmen: Tommi Niittylä Joni Pekkala
	0–1 05:04 – Thomas (Tuulola, Granath) Kelleher (Vilén, Mylläri) – 58:43 1–1 1–2 29:29 – Savinainen (Lehterä, Ojamäki) (PP) 1–3 44:29 – Merelä (Puhakka, Matushkin)
	4 min	Penalties	6 min
	39	Shots	43

27 April 2023 18:30

Tappara

5–4 OT1 (3–2, 0–1, 1–1, 1–0)

Pelicans

Nokia Arena, Tampere Attendance: 12,700

Game reference
	Christian Heljanko	Goalies	Patrik Bartošák Jasper Patrikainen	Referees: Mikko Kaukokari Lassi Heikkinen Linesmen: Hannu Sormunen Onni Hautamäki
	Levtchi (Merelä, Matushkin) – 01:11 1–0 Tanus (Lehterä, Matushkin) – 07:03 2–0 Jurgens (Merelä, Levtchi) – 07:29 3–0 3–1 12:04 – Vilen (Ikonen, Vilen) (PP1) 3–2 14:41 – Blood (Vilen) 3–3 39:01 – Kangasniemi (Roine, Jašek) (PP1) 3–4 44:14 – Jämsen (Hirvonen, Vilen) Savinainen (Kemiläinen, Merelä) – 59:59 4–4 Davidsson (Jurgens, Puhakka) – 68:57 5–4
	8 min	Penalties	10 min
	43	Shots	21

Tappara wins the finals 4-1.

Final rankings

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

See also

• 2022–23 Naisten Liiga season