2018–19 Mestis season

The 2018–19 Mestis season is the 19th season of Mestis, the second highest level of ice hockey in Finland after Liiga. KOOVEE was promoted from Suomi-sarja due to Espoo United declaring bankruptcy at the end of last season.

2018–19 Mestis
LeagueMestis
SportIce hockey
DurationSeptember 2018 – April 2019
Number of teams12
Regular season
Best recordHermes
Runners-upLeKi
Top scorerMiro-Pekka Saarelainen (K-Vantaa)
Playoffs
Playoffs MVPSameli Ventelä (Ketterä)
Finals championsKetterä
  Runners-upKeuPa HT


Clubs

Team City Home arena, capacity Founded Head coach
Hermes Kokkola Kokkolan jäähalli, 4,200 1953 Janne Tuunanen
IPK Iisalmi Kankaan jäähalli, 1,326 1966 Janne Sinkkonen 3.1.2019
Tommi Miettinen[1]
Jokipojat Joensuu Mehtimäki Ice Hall, 4,800 1953 Jouni Varis
Ketterä Imatra Imatra Spa Areena, 1,200 1957 Maso Lehtonen
KeuPa HT Keuruu Keuruun Jäähalli, 1,100 1995 Niko Härkönen
K-Vantaa Vantaa Trio Areena, 2,004 1994 Simo Mälkiä 28.1.2019
Reijo Ruotsalainen[2]
KOOVEE Tampere Hakametsä 2, 1050 1929 Juha Pajuoja
LeKi Lempäälä Masku Areena, 800 1904 Miikka Kuusela
Peliitat Heinola Versowood Areena, 2,975 1984 Jani Keinänen 9.2.2019
Vesa Petäjä[3]
RoKi Rovaniemi Lappi Areena, 3,500 1979 Santeri Immonen
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 Hermes 50 29 3 2 16 180 133 +47 95 Advance to playoffs
2 LeKi 50 26 7 3 14 194 155 +39 95
3 Ketterä 50 22 7 7 14 163 141 +22 87
4 SaPKo 50 22 5 5 18 177 159 +18 81
5 TUTO Hockey 50 20 8 4 18 151 130 +21 80
6 Jokipojat 50 19 6 8 17 151 151 0 77
7 RoKi 50 18 5 7 20 138 164 26 71
8 KeuPa HT 50 18 5 5 22 151 139 +12 69
9 IPK 50 20 3 2 25 160 180 20 68
10 K-Vantaa 50 17 4 6 23 138 158 20 65
11 Peliitat 50 14 6 9 21 134 158 24 63 Qualification to the relegation playoffs
12 KOOVEE 50 13 3 4 30 141 210 69 49

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

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

  Quarter-finals Semi-finals Finals
                           
  1  Hermes 2  
8  KeuPa HT 4  
  2  LeKi 2  
  8  KeuPa HT 4  
2  LeKi 4
  7  RoKi 2  
    3  Ketterä 4
  8  KeuPa HT 1
  3  Ketterä 4  
6  Jokipojat 1  
  3  Ketterä 4 Bronze medal game
  5  TUTO Hockey 0  
4  SaPKo 2 2  LeKi 0
  5  TUTO Hockey 4   5  TUTO Hockey 1

Quarterfinals


Semifinals


Bronze medal game

17 April 2019
18:30
LeKi1–3
(0–0, 0–2, 1–1)
TUTO HockeyMasku Areena, Lempäälä
Attendance: 611

Finals

16 April 2019
18:30
Ketterä5–4
(1–1, 2–2, 2–1)
KeuPa HTKisapuisto, Lappeenranta[5]
Attendance: 4,820
18 April 2019
18:30
KeuPa HT2–3
(1–1, 0–2, 1–0)
KetteräKeuruu Ice Hall, Keuruu
Attendance: 900
20 April 2019
17:00
Ketterä2–1 OT1
(0–0, 0–1, 1–0, 1–0)
KeuPa HTImatra Spa Areena, Imatra
Attendance: 1,225
22 April 2019
17:00
KeuPa HT2–1 OT1
(0–0, 1–0, 0–1, 1–0)
KetteräKeuruu Ice Hall, Keuruu
Attendance: 749
24 April 2019
18:30
Ketterä3–2
(2–2, 1–0, 0–0)
KeuPa HTImatra Spa Areena, Imatra
Attendance: 1,300

Ketterä wins the finals 4-1.

Relegation playoffs

The bottom two teams faced the top two teams from Suomi-sarja for a best-of-7 series were the winners got a place in Mestis for the next season. Peliitat and KOOVEE both won their series and thus avoided relegation.

See also

References

  1. Kouvalainen, Miska (2019-01-03). "IPK teki vihdoin muutoksia valmennukseensa - Janne Sinkkonen ulos, Tommi Miettinen tilalle" (in Finnish). Jatkoaika.com. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
  2. "Kiekko-Vantaan päävalmentaja vaihtuu - Reijo Ruotsalainen korvaa Simo Mälkiän" (in Finnish). mestis.fi. 2019-01-28. Archived from the original on 2019-07-10. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
  3. "Peliittojen ja Jani Keinäsen tiet eroavat - Vesa Petäjä Peliittojen penkin taakse" (in Finnish). mestis.fi. 2019-02-09. Archived from the original on 2019-07-10. Retrieved 2019-02-11.
  4. "Sarjataulukko". Jatkoaika.com. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  5. Due to semi-final matches at Imatra being sold out Ketterä wanted to give as many fans as possible an opportunity to enjoy ice hockey in a bigger stadium in the neighboring town of Lappeenranta for the first game of the finals.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.