# 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.

## Teams

| 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 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 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

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 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 3 | Lukko | 60 | 28 | 8 | 5 | 19 | 155 | 122 | +33 | 105 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 4 | Pelicans | 60 | 30 | 4 | 5 | 21 | 166 | 136 | +30 | 103 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 5 | KalPa | 60 | 28 | 5 | 8 | 19 | 169 | 145 | +24 | 102 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 6 | HIFK | 60 | 24 | 8 | 9 | 19 | 155 | 150 | +5 | 97 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 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 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 9 | TPS | 60 | 21 | 10 | 8 | 21 | 141 | 140 | +1 | 91 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 10 | KooKoo | 60 | 19 | 11 | 5 | 25 | 155 | 167 | −12 | 84 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 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 | |

### 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) | 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 | 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) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | | | |
| | | | 8 | Ässät | 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) | | | |
| | | | | | | (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) | 4 | Pelicans | 1 |
| | | | 3 | Lukko | 2 | (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 | Ässät | 2 | 6 | HIFK | 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) |
| 9 | TPS | 1 | | | | 2 | Ilves | 2 | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game | 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. ||||

### Finals

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 |