# 2020–21 Mestis season

The 2020–21 Mestis season was the 21st season of Mestis, the second highest level of ice hockey in Finland after Liiga. Due to promotion/relegation games being cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic in the last season both semi-finalists from last seasons Suomi-sarja (K-Espoo and FPS) were promoted to Mestis. Therefore, this seasons consisted of 14 teams.

## Clubs

| Team | City | Home arena, capacity | Founded | Head coach |
| FPS | Forssa | Forssa Ice Hall, 3,000 | 1931 | Asko Rantanen |
| Hermes | Kokkola | Kokkolan jäähalli, 4,200 | 1953 | Jere Härkälä |
| Hokki | Kajaani | Kajaanin jäähalli, 2,372 | 1968 | Niko Eronen |
| IPK | Iisalmi | Kankaan jäähalli, 1,358 | 1966 | Niko Härkönen |
| JoKP | Joensuu | PKS Areena, 4,800 | 1953 | Joni Petrell 19.1.2021 Benjamin Laurinkari |
| Ketterä | Imatra | Imatra Spa Areena, 1,200 | 1957 | Maso Lehtonen |
| KeuPa HT | Keuruu | Keuruun Jäähalli, 1,100 | 1995 | Tomas Westerlund |
| K-Espoo | Espoo | Espoo Metro Areena, 6,982 | 2018 | Janne Tuunanen |
| K-Vantaa | Vantaa | Trio Areena, 2,004 | 1994 | Mika Niskanen |
| KOOVEE | Tampere | Tampere Ice Stadium, 7,300 | 1929 | Juuso Hahl |
| Peliitat | Heinola | Versowood Areena, 2,686 | 1984 | Vesa Petäjä |
| RoKi | Rovaniemi | Lappi Areena, 3,500 | 1979 | Santeri Immonen |
| SaPKo | Savonlinna | Talvisalo ice rink, 2,833 | 1929 | Pasi Räsänen |
| TUTO Hockey | Turku | Kupittaan jäähalli, 3,000 | 1929 | Antti Virtanen |

## Regular season

Initially the plan was to have each team play 50 games in total but due to the season being on hold from 2 December 2020 to 10 February 2021 the teams were unable to play the full season. Due to this points-per-game determines the order of the teams. SaPKo and RoKi decided not to continue the season when it resumed in February 2021.
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. Since the highest series of Finnish hockey is a closed series no team will be promoted to Liiga.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | W+ | Pts | PPG | Final Result |
| 1 | K-Espoo | 31 | 17 | 6 | 8 | 108 | 84 | 24 | 3 | 60 | 1.94 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 2 | JoKP | 31 | 17 | 5 | 9 | 107 | 89 | 18 | 3 | 59 | 1.90 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 3 | Ketterä | 31 | 17 | 5 | 9 | 130 | 92 | 38 | 1 | 57 | 1.84 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 4 | KeuPa HT | 31 | 17 | 4 | 10 | 112 | 102 | 10 | 2 | 57 | 1.84 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 5 | IPK | 30 | 14 | 6 | 10 | 108 | 94 | 14 | 5 | 53 | 1.77 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 6 | KOOVEE | 28 | 13 | 3 | 12 | 89 | 93 | −4 | 2 | 44 | 1.57 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 7 | K-Vantaa | 29 | 11 | 7 | 11 | 89 | 85 | 4 | 2 | 42 | 1.45 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 8 | TUTO Hockey | 30 | 11 | 6 | 13 | 98 | 104 | −6 | 3 | 42 | 1.40 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 9 | Hermes | 30 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 86 | 96 | −10 | 4 | 37 | 1.23 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 10 | Peliitat | 31 | 9 | 5 | 17 | 92 | 113 | −21 | 4 | 36 | 1.16 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 11 | FPS | 30 | 10 | 1 | 19 | 77 | 103 | −26 | 1 | 32 | 1.07 | |
| 12 | Hokki | 30 | 6 | 7 | 17 | 79 | 107 | −28 | 2 | 27 | 0.90 | |
| 13 | SaPKo | 18 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 62 | 68 | −6 | 4 | 27 | 1.50 | Did not finish the season |
| 14 | RoKi | 18 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 57 | 64 | −7 | 0 | 24 | 1.33 | Did not finish the season |
Rules for classification: 1) Points-per-game; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Penalty minutes.

## Playoffs

Playoffs are being played in four stages. Each stage before the final is a best-of-3 series, with the final being a best-of-5 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

| Wild-card round (best-of-3) | Wild-card round (best-of-3) | Wild-card round (best-of-3) | Quarter-finals (best-of-3) | Quarter-finals (best-of-3) | Quarter-finals (best-of-3) | Semi-finals (best-of-3) | Semi-finals (best-of-3) | Semi-finals (best-of-3) | Finals (best-of-5) | Finals (best-of-5) | Finals (best-of-5) |
| | | | 1 | K-Espoo | 0 | | | | | | |
| 7 | K-Vantaa | 2 | 9 | Hermes | 2 | | | | | | |
| 10 | Peliitat | 0 | | | | 2 | JoKP | 0 | | | |
| | | | | | | 9 | Hermes | 2 | | | |
| | | | 2 | JoKP | 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) | | | |
| | | | 7 | K-Vantaa | 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) | 3 | Ketterä | 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 | Hermes | 2 |
| | | | 3 | Ketterä | 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 | TUTO Hockey | 1 | 6 | KOOVEE | 0 | (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 | Hermes | 2 | | | | 3 | Ketterä | 2 | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game |
| | | | | | | 5 | IPK | 0 |
| | | | 4 | KeuPa HT | 1 | | | | 2 | JoKP | 0 |
| | | | 5 | IPK | 2 | | | | 5 | IPK | 4 |

### Wild-card round

K-Vantaa – Peliitat 2-0 :
| 30.3.2021 | K-Vantaa | Peliitat | 6-2 ref |
| 1.4.2021 | Peliitat | K-Vantaa | 1-3 ref |
| K-Vantaa wins the series 2-0. ||||
TUTO Hockey – Hermes 1-2 :
| 30.3.2021 | TUTO Hockey | Hermes | 5-6 ref |
| 1.4.2021 | Hermes | TUTO Hockey | 1-3 OT2 ref |
| 3.4.2021 | TUTO Hockey | Hermes | 3-4 OT1 ref |
| Hermes wins the series 2-1. ||||

### Quarter-finals

K-Espoo – Hermes 0-2 :
| 6.4.2021 | K-Espoo | Hermes | 4-5 OT1 ref |
| 8.4.2021 | Hermes | K-Espoo | 2-1 OT1 ref |
| Hermes wins the series 2-0. ||||
JoKP – K-Vantaa 2-1 :
| 6.4.2021 | JoKP | K-Vantaa | 6-3 ref |
| 8.4.2021 | K-Vantaa | JoKP | 5-4 ref |
| 10.4.2021 | JoKP | K-Vantaa | 4-2 ref |
| JoKP wins the series 2-1. ||||
Ketterä – KOOVEE 2-0 :
| 6.4.2021 | Ketterä | KOOVEE | 5-3 ref |
| 8.4.2021 | KOOVEE | Ketterä | 1-4 ref |
| Ketterä wins the series 2-0. ||||
KeuPa HT – IPK 1-2 :
| 6.4.2021 | KeuPa HT | IPK | 2-3 ref |
| 8.4.2021 | IPK | KeuPa HT | 0-4 ref |
| 10.4.2021 | KeuPa HT | IPK | 3-4 OT1 ref |
| IPK wins the series 2-1. ||||

### Semi-finals

JoKP – Hermes 0-2 :
| 13.4.2021 | JoKP | Hermes | 2-3 ref |
| 15.4.2021 | Hermes | JoKP | 3-1 ref |
| Hermes wins the series 2-0. ||||
Ketterä – IPK 2-0 :
| 13.4.2021 | Ketterä | IPK | 4-3 ref |
| 15.4.2021 | IPK | Ketterä | 5-6 OT1 ref |
| Ketterä wins the series 2-0. ||||

### Finals

Ketterä wins the finals 3–2.