# 2023–24 Liiga season

The 2023–24 Liiga season was the 49th season of the Liiga, the top level of ice hockey in Finland, since its formation in 1975.

## Format

The regular season started on Tuesday, 12 September 2023, with a match between Rauman Lukko and Hämeenlinnan Pallokerho in Rauma. The match was the only one of the day. As in previous seasons, 450 matches will be played in the regular season, 60 for each team. There are 25 full rounds of seven matches played, 16 of which are on Saturdays. A little more than half of the regular season, 262 matches, are played on Fridays and Saturdays. Most weekday games are played on Wednesdays (98). There were a total of 106 game days in the regular season, i.e. eight less than in the previous season.
As usual, the series is on break in November for a week and a half while the national teams play in the Euro Hockey Tour. The Christmas break lasts 5–7 days, depending on the team, with the exception of KalPa, which participates on the 26th–31st of December in the Spengler Cup in Switzerland. For other teams, the Christmas break ends on Saint Stephen's day, 26 December. The regular season ends on Tuesday, 12 March 2024.

## Teams

| Team | City | Head coach | Arena | Capacity | Captain |
| HIFK | Helsinki | Ville Peltonen | Helsingin jäähalli | 8,200 | Jori Lehterä |
| HPK | Hämeenlinna | Maso Lehtonen | Pohjantähti Areena | 5,360 | Juuso Hietanen |
| Ilves | Tampere | Antti Pennanen | Nokia Arena | 12,700 | Niklas Friman |
| Jukurit | Mikkeli | Olli Jokinen | Ikioma Areena | 4,200 | Pekka Jormakka |
| JYP | Jyväskylä | Jukka Rautakorpi 20 Dec 2023 Mikko Heiskanen | LähiTapiola Areena | 4,437 | Teemu Eronen |
| KalPa | Kuopio | Petri Karjalainen | Olvi Areena | 5,300 | Tuomas Kiiskinen |
| KooKoo | Kouvola | Olli Salo | Lumon Areena | 5,950 | Otto Paajanen |
| Kärpät | Oulu | Lauri Marjamäki 18 Dec 2023 Ville Mäntymaa | Oulun Energia Areena | 6,300 | Atte Ohtamaa |
| Lukko | Rauma | Tomi Lämsä | Kivikylän Areena | 4,500 | Julius Mattila |
| Pelicans | Lahti | Tommi Niemelä | Isku Areena | 4,403 | Miika Roine |
| SaiPa | Lappeenranta | Ville Hämäläinen | Lappeenrannan jäähalli | 4,820 | Miska Siikonen |
| Sport | Vaasa | Risto Dufva | Vaasan Sähkö Areena | 5,185 | Sebastian Stålberg |
| Tappara | Tampere | Rikard Grönborg | Nokia Arena | 12,700 | Otto Rauhala |
| TPS | Turku | Tommi Miettinen | Gatorade Center | 10,500 | Juhani Jasu |
| Ässät | Pori | Jere Härkälä | Enersense Areena | 6,150 | Jesse Joensuu |

## Regular season standings

Top six advanced straight to the quarter-finals, while teams between 7th and 10th positions play a wild card round for the final two spots. The SM-liiga is a closed series and thus there is no relegation to the Mestis.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final Result |
| 1 | Tappara | 60 | 34 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 200 | 141 | +59 | 123 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 2 | Ilves | 60 | 33 | 7 | 7 | 13 | 197 | 144 | +53 | 120 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 3 | Pelicans | 60 | 31 | 4 | 8 | 17 | 177 | 147 | +30 | 109 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 4 | Kärpät | 60 | 28 | 8 | 6 | 18 | 174 | 147 | +27 | 106 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 5 | Jukurit | 60 | 30 | 3 | 7 | 20 | 197 | 147 | +50 | 103 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 6 | HIFK | 60 | 26 | 7 | 11 | 16 | 179 | 139 | +40 | 103 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 7 | KalPa | 60 | 25 | 6 | 7 | 22 | 169 | 156 | +13 | 94 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 8 | Lukko | 60 | 22 | 10 | 6 | 22 | 157 | 160 | −3 | 92 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 9 | TPS | 60 | 17 | 14 | 5 | 24 | 150 | 166 | −16 | 84 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 10 | Sport | 60 | 21 | 5 | 10 | 24 | 155 | 174 | −19 | 83 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 11 | Ässät | 60 | 19 | 7 | 10 | 24 | 136 | 144 | −8 | 81 | |
| 12 | KooKoo | 60 | 17 | 11 | 6 | 26 | 175 | 178 | −3 | 79 | |
| 13 | JYP | 60 | 16 | 7 | 7 | 30 | 152 | 196 | −44 | 69 | |
| 14 | HPK | 60 | 15 | 4 | 6 | 35 | 111 | 184 | −73 | 59 | |
| 15 | SaiPa | 60 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 35 | 125 | 231 | −106 | 45 | |

### Statistics
#### Scoring leaders

The following shows the top ten players leading the league in points.
| Player | Team | GP | G | A | Pts | +/– | PIM |
| Oula Palve | Ilves | 60 | 20 | 44 | 64 | +19 | 63 |
| Jerry Turkulainen | JYP | 60 | 21 | 42 | 63 | +4 | 18 |
| Eemeli Suomi | Ilves | 58 | 21 | 38 | 59 | +17 | 22 |
| Teemu Turunen | Kärpät | 60 | 30 | 27 | 57 | +3 | 20 |
| Anton Levtchi | Tappara | 55 | 19 | 38 | 57 | +11 | 22 |
| Ville Koivunen | Kärpät | 59 | 22 | 34 | 56 | +7 | 26 |
| Jori Lehterä | HIFK | 57 | 6 | 50 | 56 | +10 | 36 |
| Ryan Lasch | Pelicans | 55 | 9 | 45 | 54 | +14 | 14 |
| Nathan Schnarr | Pelicans | 51 | 18 | 32 | 50 | +23 | 28 |
| Ben Tardif | KooKoo | 57 | 15 | 35 | 50 | +10 | 74 |

## Playoffs
### Bracket

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

### Wild-card round

KalPa – Sport 2-0 :
| 15.3.2024 | KalPa | Sport | 4-1 ref |
| 17.3.2024 | Sport | KalPa | 2-4 ref |
| KalPa wins the series 2-0. ||||
Lukko – TPS 1-2 :
| 15.3.2024 | Lukko | TPS | 3-2 OT1 ref |
| 16.3.2024 | TPS | Lukko | 2-1 ref |
| 18.3.2024 | Lukko | TPS | 3-5 ref |
| TPS wins the series 2-1. ||||

### Quarter-finals

Tappara – TPS 4-2 :
| 20.3.2024 | Tappara | TPS | 4-1 ref |
| 22.3.2024 | TPS | Tappara | 4-2 ref |
| 23.3.2024 | Tappara | TPS | 4-0 ref |
| 26.3.2024 | TPS | Tappara | 2-1 OT1 ref |
| 28.3.2024 | Tappara | TPS | 5-2 ref |
| 30.3.2024 | TPS | Tappara | 4-5 OT1 ref |
| Tappara wins the series 4-2. ||||
Pelicans – HIFK 4-3 :
| 20.3.2024 | Pelicans | HIFK | 4-2 ref |
| 22.3.2024 | HIFK | Pelicans | 1-4 ref |
| 23.3.2024 | Pelicans | HIFK | 3-2 OT1 ref |
| 26.3.2024 | HIFK | Pelicans | 2-1 OT3 ref |
| 28.3.2024 | Pelicans | HIFK | 0-3 ref |
| 30.3.2024 | HIFK | Pelicans | 2-1 OT1 ref |
| 2.4.2024 | Pelicans | HIFK | 4-3 ref |
| Pelicans wins the series 4-3. ||||
Ilves – KalPa 1-4 :
| 21.3.2024 | Ilves | KalPa | 3-4 OT1 ref |
| 23.3.2024 | KalPa | Ilves | 1-0 OT1 ref |
| 25.3.2024 | Ilves | KalPa | 3-2 OT1 ref |
| 27.3.2024 | KalPa | Ilves | 4-2 ref |
| 29.3.2024 | Ilves | KalPa | 2-4 ref |
| KalPa wins the series 4-1. ||||
Kärpät – Jukurit 4-2 :
| 20.3.2024 | Kärpät | Jukurit | 4-1 ref |
| 22.3.2024 | Jukurit | Kärpät | 1-2 OT1 ref |
| 23.3.2024 | Kärpät | Jukurit | 5-2 ref |
| 26.3.2024 | Jukurit | Kärpät | 5-2 ref |
| 28.3.2024 | Kärpät | Jukurit | 2-3 ref |
| 30.3.2024 | Jukurit | Kärpät | 3-4 OT1 ref |
| Kärpät wins the series 4-2. ||||

### Semi-finals

Tappara – KalPa 4-1 :
| 5.4.2024 | Tappara | KalPa | 3-2 OT1 ref |
| 6.4.2024 | KalPa | Tappara | 4-5 ref |
| 9.4.2024 | Tappara | KalPa | 1-2 ref |
| 12.4.2024 | KalPa | Tappara | 0-4 ref |
| 13.4.2024 | Tappara | KalPa | 3-1 ref |
| Tappara wins the series 4-1. ||||
Pelicans – Kärpät 4-1 :
| 5.4.2024 | Pelicans | Kärpät | 2-1 ref |
| 6.4.2024 | Kärpät | Pelicans | 3-5 ref |
| 9.4.2024 | Pelicans | Kärpät | 1-0 ref |
| 12.4.2024 | Kärpät | Pelicans | 1-0 ref |
| 13.4.2024 | Pelicans | Kärpät | 2-1 OT1 ref |
| Pelicans wins the series 4-1. ||||

### Finals

Tappara wins the finals 4-1.

## Final rankings

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

## Broadcast rights

For the 2023–2024 season, Telia had transferred the television rights of the SM-liiga to MTV, which it owns. Telia had acquired the broadcast rights starting from the 2018–2019 season, and with the new agreement MTV has the rights until the end of the 2026–2027 season. MTV pays more than 90 million euros for television rights over four seasons, and the company has admitted that the operation is loss-making. The broadcasts are produced by MTV and during the season games can be seen live from C More, Discovery+, DNA, Elisa Viihde, MTV and Telia.

## Attendances

| # | Ice hockey club | Average attendance |
| 1 | Tappara | 8,494 |
| 2 | Ilves | 8,126 |
| 3 | IFK Helsingfors | 7,873 |
| 4 | HC TPS | 5,410 |
| 5 | Ässät | 4,657 |
| 6 | Kärpät | 4,633 |
| 7 | Lukko | 3,638 |
| 8 | Vaasan Sport | 3,619 |
| 9 | Lahti Pelicans | 3,548 |
| 10 | KooKoo | 3,434 |
| 11 | KalPa | 3,403 |
| 12 | JYP | 3,252 |
| 13 | HPK | 3,149 |
| 14 | Mikkelin Jukurit | 2,933 |
| 15 | SaiPa | 2,357 |