2017–18 Liiga season

The 2017–18 SM-liiga season was the 43rd season of the SM-liiga (branded simply as "Liiga"), the top level of ice hockey in Finland, since the league's formation in 1975. Tappara was the season as a defending champion. This season included a record number of matches played on Fridays and Saturdays. In autumn, there was a national team break from 5 November until 13 November.

2017–18 SM-liiga
League	SM-Liiga
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	September 2017 – April 2018
Number of teams	15
TV partner(s)	Nelonen
Regular season
Best record	Oulun Kärpät
Runners-up	TPS
Season MVP	Julius Junttila (Kärpät)
Top scorer	Antti Suomela (JYP)
Playoffs
Playoffs MVP	Julius Junttila (Kärpät)
Finals champions	Oulun Kärpät
Runners-up	Tappara

The specialties of the season included, for the first time in SM-liiga history, double games between KooKoo and Vaasan Sport. Teams met twice in October in consecutive evenings in Kouvola and in February twice in succession in Vaasa. In December, HIFK and Kärpät met in the hockey outdoor show at Kaisaniemi, Helsinki.

In 2018, the SM-liiga continued on Wednesday, 3 January. Ice hockey at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea's Pyeongchang start with the Finland men's national ice hockey team on February 14, 2018. In SM-liiga, a full round was played on Saturday 17 February, after which the Olympic Games started. Liiga games resumed on Tuesday, February 27.

Kärpät won the championship by winning Tappara in the final series 4–2.

Teams

Jukurit

HIFK

HPK

Ilves
Tappara

JYP

KalPa

KooKoo

Kärpät

Lukko

Pelicans

SaiPa

Ässät

Sport

TPS

Location of teams in 2017–2018 Liiga

Team	City	Head coach	Arena	Capacity	Captain
HIFK	Helsinki	Ari-Pekka Selin	Helsingin jäähalli	8,200	Lennart Petrell
HPK	Hämeenlinna	Antti Pennanen	Patria-areena	5,360	Otto Paajanen
Ilves	Tampere	Karri Kivi	Tampereen jäähalli	7,300	Tapio Laakso
Jukurit	Mikkeli	Risto Dufva	Kalevankankaan jäähalli	4,200	Miika Roine
JYP	Jyväskylä	Marko Virtanen	Synergia-areena	4,437	Juha-Pekka Hytönen
KalPa	Kuopio	Sami Kapanen	Niiralan monttu	5,064	Tommi Jokinen
KooKoo	Kouvola	Tuomas Tuokkola	Lumon arena	6,000	Toni Kähkönen
Kärpät	Oulu	Mikko Manner	Oulun Energia Areena	6,614	Lasse Kukkonen
Lukko	Rauma	Pekka Virta	Äijänsuo Arena	5,400	Janne Niskala
Pelicans	Lahti	Petri Matikainen	Isku Areena	5,530	Stefan Lassen
SaiPa	Lappeenranta	Tero Lehterä	Kisapuisto	4,820	Ville Koho
Sport	Vaasa	Tomek Valtonen	Vaasa Arena	4,512	Markus Kankaanperä
Tappara	Tampere	Jukka Rautakorpi	Tampereen jäähalli	7,300	Jukka Peltola
TPS	Turku	Kalle Kaskinen	HK Arena	11,820	Tomi Kallio
Ässät	Pori	Jyrki Aho14 Jan 2018 Mikael Kotkaniemi	Porin jäähalli	6,280	Matti Kuparinen

Regular season

Top six advance straight to quarter-finals, while teams between 7th and 10th positions play 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	Kärpät (C)	60	33	8	8	11	195	134	+61	123	Advance to Quarterfinals
2	TPS	60	30	7	8	15	187	147	+40	112
3	Tappara	60	25	14	7	14	165	130	+35	110
4	JYP	60	32	4	4	20	187	145	+42	108
5	HIFK	60	26	8	9	17	163	128	+35	103
6	KalPa	60	26	7	7	20	144	136	+8	99
7	SaiPa	60	21	11	8	20	153	163	−10	93	Advance to Wild-card round
8	Ässät	60	23	7	5	25	163	177	−14	88
9	Lukko	60	21	8	6	25	141	142	−1	85
10	Pelicans	60	20	7	9	24	165	175	−10	83
11	Ilves	60	21	5	8	26	162	190	−28	81
12	HPK	60	20	7	4	29	145	157	−12	78
13	Jukurit	60	16	5	9	30	133	170	−37	67
14	KooKoo	60	14	5	10	31	142	198	−56	62
15	Sport	60	12	7	8	33	153	206	−53	58

Source: Liiga
(C) Champion

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

Playoffs

Bracket

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

Wild card round

SaiPa – Pelicans 2-1 13.3.2018 SaiPa Pelicans 4-2 ref 15.3.2018 Pelicans SaiPa 3-0 ref 17.3.2018 SaiPa Pelicans 3-2 OT1 ref SaiPa wins the series 2-1.

Ässät – Lukko 2-0 13.3.2018 Ässät Lukko 2-1 ref 15.3.2018 Lukko Ässät 2-3 OT1 ref Ässät wins the series 2-0.

Quarterfinals

Kärpät – Ässät 4-1 20.3.2018 Kärpät Ässät 4-1 ref 22.3.2018 Ässät Kärpät 3-2 ref 24.3.2018 Kärpät Ässät 3-1 ref 26.3.2018 Ässät Kärpät 1-3 ref 28.3.2018 Kärpät Ässät 5-1 ref Kärpät wins the series 4-1. Tappara – KalPa 4-2 21.3.2018 Tappara KalPa 3-2 ref 23.3.2018 KalPa Tappara 4-3 ref 24.3.2018 Tappara KalPa 4-3 OT1 ref 26.3.2018 KalPa Tappara 0-3 ref 28.3.2018 Tappara KalPa 1-3 ref 29.3.2018 KalPa Tappara 3-4 ref Tappara wins the series 4-2.

TPS – SaiPa 4-2 20.3.2018 TPS SaiPa 4-3 OT1 ref 22.3.2018 SaiPa TPS 5-6 ref 24.3.2018 TPS SaiPa 7-0 ref 26.3.2018 SaiPa TPS 3-1 ref 28.3.2018 TPS SaiPa 0-2 ref 29.3.2018 SaiPa TPS 1-2 OT1 ref TPS wins the series 4-2. JYP – HIFK 2-4 21.3.2018 JYP HIFK 1-2 ref 23.3.2018 HIFK JYP 1-2 OT1 ref 24.3.2018 JYP HIFK 4-3 OT1 ref 26.3.2018 HIFK JYP 4-1 ref 28.3.2018 JYP HIFK 6-7 OT1 ref 29.3.2018 HIFK JYP 2-1 ref HIFK wins the series 4-2.

Semifinals

Kärpät – HIFK 4-3 3.4.2018 Kärpät HIFK 1-4 ref 5.4.2018 HIFK Kärpät 3-4 OT1 ref 7.4.2018 Kärpät HIFK 3-0 ref 9.4.2018 HIFK Kärpät 4-1 ref 11.4.2018 Kärpät HIFK 2-1 OT1 ref 12.4.2018 HIFK Kärpät 4-3 OT1 ref 14.4.2018 Kärpät HIFK 2-1 ref Kärpät wins the series 4-3.

TPS – Tappara 0-4 4.4.2018 TPS Tappara 2-3 OT1 ref 6.4.2018 Tappara TPS 3-0 ref 7.4.2018 TPS Tappara 1-2 ref 9.4.2018 Tappara TPS 6-5 OT1 ref Tappara wins the series 4-0.

Bronze medal game

20 April 2018 18:30

TPS

2–3 OT1 (0–1, 2–1, 0–0, 0–1)

HIFK

Gatorade Center, Turku Attendance: 7,021

Game reference
	6 min	Penalties	6 min
	23	Shots	36

Finals

17 April 2018 18:30

Kärpät

3–0 (0–0, 1–0, 2–0)

Tappara

Oulun Energia Areena, Oulu Attendance: 5,021

Game reference
	2 min	Penalties	16 min
	27	Shots	19

19 April 2018 18:30

Tappara

2–4 (2–1, 0–2, 0–1)

Kärpät

Tampere Ice Stadium, Tampere Attendance: 6,701

Game reference
	2 min	Penalties	8 min
	22	Shots	17

21 April 2018 17:00

Kärpät

2–1 OT1 (0–0, 0–1, 1–0, 1–0)

Tappara

Oulun Energia Areena, Oulu Attendance: 6,485

Game reference
	6 min	Penalties	6 min
	28	Shots	24

23 April 2018 18:30

Tappara

2–0 (0–0, 2–0, 0–0)

Kärpät

Tampere Ice Stadium, Tampere Attendance: 7,300

Game reference
	18 min	Penalties	18 min
	36	Shots	21

24 April 2018 18:30

Kärpät

4–5 (0–3, 1–1, 3–1)

Tappara

Oulun Energia Areena, Oulu Attendance: 6,550

Game reference
	14 min	Penalties	6 min
	29	Shots	19

26 April 2018 18:30

Tappara

0–1 (0–0, 0–0, 0–1)

Kärpät

Tampere Ice Stadium, Tampere Attendance: 7,279

Game reference
	4 min	Penalties	4 min
	28	Shots	24

Kärpät wins the series 4-2 and wins the championship.

Final rankings

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

See also

• 2017–18 Mestis season

References

1. "Joukkuetilastot | Runkosarja 2017-2018 | Tilastot | Liiga". Liiga.fi. Retrieved 2018-02-28.