# 2021–22 Mestis season

The 2021–22 Mestis season was the 22nd season of Mestis, the second highest level of ice hockey in Finland after Liiga. Therefore, this season there would be 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 | Pasi Räsänen |
| IPK | Iisalmi | Kankaan jäähalli, 1,358 | 1966 | Niko Härkönen |
| JoKP | Joensuu | PKS Areena, 4,800 | 1953 | Kari Martikainen |
| Ketterä | Imatra | Imatra Spa Areena, 1,200 | 1957 | Tuomo Ropo |
| KeuPa HT | Keuruu | Keuruun Jäähalli, 1,100 | 1995 | Tomas Westerlund |
| K-Espoo | Espoo | Espoo Metro Areena, 6,982 | 2018 | Kim Hirschovits |
| K-Vantaa | Vantaa | Trio Areena, 2,004 | 1994 | Mika Niskanen |
| KOOVEE | Tampere | Tampere Ice Stadium, 7,300 | 1929 | Vesa Viitakoski |
| Peliitat | Heinola | Versowood Areena, 2,686 | 1984 | Hannes Hyvönen |
| RoKi | Rovaniemi | Lappi Areena, 3,500 | 1979 | Maso Lehtonen |
| SaPKo | Savonlinna | Talvisalo ice rink, 2,833 | 1929 | Niko Eronen 7.10.2021 Juho Nykänen |
| TUTO Hockey | Turku | Kupittaan jäähalli, 3,000 | 1929 | Antti Virtanen |

## Regular season

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF | GA | GD | PCT | Final Result |
| 1 | Ketterä | 52 | 30 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 191 | 132 | +59 | .686 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 2 | K-Espoo | 52 | 26 | 9 | 4 | 13 | 158 | 126 | +32 | .641 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 3 | JoKP | 52 | 27 | 6 | 5 | 14 | 182 | 129 | +53 | .628 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 4 | FPS | 52 | 24 | 5 | 6 | 17 | 170 | 152 | +18 | .564 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 5 | KeuPa HT | 52 | 22 | 4 | 6 | 20 | 165 | 170 | −5 | .513 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 6 | RoKi | 52 | 19 | 8 | 7 | 18 | 152 | 161 | −9 | .513 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 7 | Hokki | 52 | 21 | 4 | 8 | 19 | 152 | 155 | −3 | .506 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 8 | IPK | 52 | 18 | 8 | 6 | 20 | 143 | 151 | −8 | .487 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 9 | Hermes | 52 | 18 | 4 | 9 | 21 | 142 | 151 | −9 | .455 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 10 | K-Vantaa | 52 | 17 | 6 | 8 | 21 | 146 | 172 | −26 | .455 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 11 | TUTO Hockey | 52 | 18 | 5 | 5 | 24 | 145 | 145 | 0 | .442 | Qualification to relegation playoffs |
| 12 | SaPKo | 52 | 17 | 5 | 5 | 25 | 143 | 159 | −16 | .423 | Qualification to relegation playoffs |
| 13 | Peliitat | 52 | 12 | 9 | 5 | 26 | 132 | 163 | −31 | .378 | Qualification to relegation playoffs |
| 14 | KOOVEE | 52 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 29 | 130 | 185 | −55 | .308 | Qualification to relegation playoffs |
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. Wild-card round is a best-of-3 series, with the quarter-finals, the semifinals and the final being best-of-7 series. The teams are reseeded after the first two stages, so that the best team by regular season performance to make the quarter-finals and the semifinals faces the worst team in the corresponding stage.

### 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 | Ketterä | 4 | | | | | | |
| 7 | Hokki | 2 | 8 | IPK | 1 | | | | | | |
| 10 | K-Vantaa | 1 | | | | 1 | Ketterä | 4 | | | |
| | | | | | | 6 | RoKi | 3 | | | |
| | | | 2 | K-Espoo | 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 | Hokki | 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) | | | |
| | | | | | | (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 | Ketterä | 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) | 2 | K-Espoo | 1 |
| | | | 3 | JoKP | 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) |
| 8 | IPK | 2 | 6 | RoKi | 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 | Hermes | 0 | | | | 2 | K-Espoo | 4 | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game |
| | | | | | | 4 | FPS | 2 |
| | | | 4 | FPS | 4 | | | | 6 | RoKi | 1 |
| | | | 5 | KeuPa HT | 3 | | | | 4 | FPS | 0 |

### Wild-card round

Hokki – K-Vantaa 2-1 :
| 28.03.2022 | Hokki | K-Vantaa | 3-0 |
| 30.03.2022 | K-Vantaa | Hokki | 4-2 |
| 31.03.2022 | Hokki | K-Vantaa | 3-2 |
| Hokki won the series 2–1. ||||
IPK – Hermes 2-0 :
| 28.03.2022 | IPK | Hermes | 1-0 |
| 30.03.2022 | Hermes | IPK | 2-3 OT |
| IPK won the series 2–0. ||||

### Quarter-finals

Ketterä – IPK 4-1 :
| 02.04.2022 | Ketterä | IPK | 8-1 |
| 04.04.2022 | IPK | Ketterä | 2-4 |
| 06.04.2022 | Ketterä | IPK | 6-2 |
| 08.04.2022 | IPK | Ketterä | 4-2 |
| 09.04.2022 | Ketterä | IPK | 5-3 |
| Ketterä won the series 4–1. ||||
JoKP – RoKi 1-4 :
| 02.04.2022 | JoKP | RoKi | 2-5 |
| 04.04.2022 | RoKi | JoKP | 5-2 |
| 06.04.2022 | JoKP | RoKi | 2-5 |
| 08.04.2022 | RoKi | JoKP | 2-4 |
| 09.04.2022 | JoKP | RoKi | 2-3 OT |
| RoKi won the series 4–1. ||||
K-Espoo – Hokki 4-0 :
| 03.04.2022 | K-Espoo | Hokki | 6-4 |
| 04.04.2022 | Hokki | K-Espoo | 1-2 OT |
| 06.04.2022 | K-Espoo | Hokki | 3-2 |
| 08.04.2022 | Hokki | K-Espoo | 3-4 OT |
| K-Espoo won the series 4–0. ||||
FPS – KeuPa HT 4-3 :
| 02.04.2022 | FPS | KeuPa HT | 5-2 |
| 04.04.2022 | KeuPa HT | FPS | 5-2 |
| 06.04.2022 | FPS | KeuPa HT | 3-2 |
| 08.04.2022 | KeuPa HT | FPS | 0-3 |
| 09.04.2022 | FPS | KeuPa HT | 4-5 |
| 11.04.2022 | KeuPa HT | FPS | 5-4 |
| 13.04.2022 | FPS | KeuPa HT | 3-1 |
| FPS won the series 4–3. ||||

### Semi-finals

Ketterä – RoKi 4-3 :
| 13.04.2022 | Ketterä | RoKi | 7-0 |
| 15.04.2022 | RoKi | Ketterä | 3-2 OT |
| 17.04.2022 | Ketterä | RoKi | 3-2 |
| 19.04.2022 | RoKi | Ketterä | 4-3 OT2 |
| 21.04.2022 | Ketterä | RoKi | 1-3 |
| 22.04.2022 | RoKi | Ketterä | 1-4 |
| 24.04.2022 | Ketterä | RoKi | 4-3 |
| Ketterä won the series 4–3. ||||
K-Espoo – FPS 4-2 :
| 15.04.2022 | K-Espoo | FPS | 2-4 |
| 16.04.2022 | FPS | K-Espoo | 2-1 |
| 18.04.2022 | K-Espoo | FPS | 2-1 |
| 20.04.2022 | FPS | K-Espoo | 2-4 |
| 22.04.2022 | K-Espoo | FPS | 2-1 |
| 23.04.2022 | FPS | K-Espoo | 1-2 OT |
| K-Espoo won the series 4–2. ||||

### Finals
## Relegation

The bottom four teams will face the top two teams from Suomi-sarja in a double round-robin format. The four best placed get a place in Mestis for the next season.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final Result |
| 1 | TUTO Hockey | 10 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 47 | 20 | +27 | 27 | Qualified for 2022-2023 Mestis season |
| 2 | Peliitat | 10 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 47 | 29 | +18 | 20 | Qualified for 2022-2023 Mestis season |
| 3 | SaPKo | 10 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 39 | 34 | +5 | 16 | Qualified for 2022-2023 Mestis season |
| 4 | KOOVEE | 10 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 34 | 32 | +2 | 13 | Qualified for 2022-2023 Mestis season |
| 5 | JHT Kalajoki | 10 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 27 | 51 | −24 | 8 | Relegated to Suomi-sarja |
| 6 | D-Kiekko | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 23 | 51 | −28 | 6 | Relegated to Suomi-sarja |

## Final rankings

| | Ketterä |
| | K-Espoo |
| | RoKi |
| 4 | FPS |
| 5 | JoKP |
| 6 | KeuPa HT |
| 7 | Hokki |
| 8 | IPK |
| 9 | Hermes |
| 10 | K-Vantaa |
| 11 | TUTO Hockey |
| 12 | SaPKo |
| 13 | Peliitat |
| 14 | KOOVEE |