# 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.
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

| 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 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 3 | Tappara | 60 | 25 | 14 | 7 | 14 | 165 | 130 | +35 | 110 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 4 | JYP | 60 | 32 | 4 | 4 | 20 | 187 | 145 | +42 | 108 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 5 | HIFK | 60 | 26 | 8 | 9 | 17 | 163 | 128 | +35 | 103 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 6 | KalPa | 60 | 26 | 7 | 7 | 20 | 144 | 136 | +8 | 99 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 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 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 9 | Lukko | 60 | 21 | 8 | 6 | 25 | 141 | 142 | −1 | 85 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 10 | Pelicans | 60 | 20 | 7 | 9 | 24 | 165 | 175 | −10 | 83 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 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 | |
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) 3-point wins 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Head-to-head points.

## 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 | 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) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round) | | | |
| | | | 7 | SaiPa | 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) | | | |
| | | | | | | (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 | Kärpät | 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 | Tappara | 2 |
| | | | 3 | 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) |
| 8 | Ässät | 2 | 6 | KalPa | 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) |
| 9 | Lukko | 0 | | | | 2 | TPS | 0 | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game | 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. ||||

### Finals

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 |