# 2022–23 Mestis season

The 2022–23 Mestis season was the 23rd season of Mestis, the second highest level of ice hockey in Finland after Liiga. This season there was 14 teams when the Latvian team HK Zemgale/LLU joined Mestis.

## Clubs

| Team | City | Home arena, capacity | Founded |
| FPS | Forssa | Forssa Ice Hall, 3,000 | 1931 |
| Hermes | Kokkola | Kokkolan jäähalli, 4,200 | 1953 |
| HK Zemgale/LLU | Jelgava, Latvia | Jelgava Ice hall, 1,500 | 2002 |
| Hokki | Kajaani | Kajaanin jäähalli, 2,372 | 1968 |
| IPK | Iisalmi | Kankaan jäähalli, 1,358 | 1966 |
| JoKP | Joensuu | PKS Areena, 4,800 | 1953 |
| Ketterä | Imatra | Imatra Spa Areena, 1,200 | 1957 |
| KeuPa HT | Keuruu | Keuruun Jäähalli, 1,100 | 1995 |
| K-Espoo | Espoo | Espoo Metro Areena, 6,982 | 2018 |
| K-Vantaa | Vantaa | Trio Areena, 2,004 | 1994 |
| KOOVEE | Tampere | Tampere Ice Stadium, 7,300 | 1929 |
| Peliitat | Heinola | Versowood Areena, 2,686 | 1984 |
| RoKi | Rovaniemi | Lappi Areena, 3,500 | 1979 |
| TUTO Hockey | Turku | Kupittaan jäähalli, 3,000 | 1929 |

## Regular season

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final Result |
| 1 | K-Espoo | 52 | 36 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 222 | 111 | +111 | 122 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 2 | Ketterä | 52 | 34 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 197 | 115 | +82 | 110 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 3 | RoKi | 52 | 27 | 6 | 3 | 16 | 179 | 135 | +44 | 96 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 4 | Hermes | 52 | 25 | 6 | 4 | 17 | 176 | 149 | +27 | 91 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 5 | JoKP | 52 | 24 | 5 | 6 | 17 | 188 | 174 | +14 | 88 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 6 | IPK | 52 | 23 | 5 | 5 | 19 | 163 | 153 | +10 | 84 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 7 | KeuPa HT | 52 | 22 | 3 | 7 | 20 | 206 | 196 | +10 | 79 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 8 | K-Vantaa | 52 | 23 | 2 | 2 | 25 | 168 | 189 | −21 | 75 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 9 | KOOVEE | 52 | 19 | 5 | 8 | 20 | 143 | 179 | −36 | 75 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 10 | TUTO Hockey | 52 | 17 | 7 | 4 | 24 | 164 | 174 | −10 | 69 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 11 | Hokki | 52 | 15 | 5 | 4 | 28 | 163 | 219 | −56 | 59 | |
| 12 | HK Zemgale/LLU* | 52 | 13 | 3 | 6 | 30 | 112 | 158 | −46 | 51 | |
| 13 | FPS | 52 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 32 | 138 | 186 | −48 | 48 | Qualification to relegation playoffs |
| 14 | Peliitat | 52 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 34 | 116 | 197 | −81 | 45 | 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.
*HK Zemgale/LLU would not participate in the relegation playoffs

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

### Promotion

None as SM-liiga is currently closed for promotion.

### Relegation

For the season 2022-2023 the relegation system was changed. The relegation playoffs were done so that the last Finnish team from Mestis faced the winner of Suomi-sarja and the second last team from Mestis faced the runner-up from Suomi-sarja. The series were best-of-7 and winners of the pairs would play in Mestis in season 2023–2024.
| Mestis last team | Peliitat | 4 |
| Suomi-sarja winner | Pyry | 0 |
| Mestis 2nd last team | FPS | 4 |
| Suomi-sarja runner-up | JHT | 2 |

## Final rankings

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