# 2020–21 Liiga season

The 2020–21 SM-liiga season was the 46th season of the SM-liiga, the top level of ice hockey in Finland, since the league's formation in 1975. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic all the games had to be played to a very limited audience or no audience at all. Two teams have temporarily let go of their coaches due to financial reasons: JYP and SaiPa. The season was Hakametsä's last full season.

## Teams

| Team | City | Head coach | Arena | Capacity | Captain |
| HIFK | Helsinki | Jarno Pikkarainen | Helsingin jäähalli | 8,200 | Jere Sallinen |
| HPK | Hämeenlinna | Matti Tiilikainen | Pohjantähti Areena | 5,360 | Markus Nenonen |
| Ilves | Tampere | Jouko Myrrä | Tampereen jäähalli | 7,300 | Eemeli Suomi |
| Jukurit | Mikkeli | Marko Kauppinen12.3.2021 Jari Kauppila | Ikioma Areena | 4,200 | Jesper Piitulainen |
| JYP | Jyväskylä | Mikko Viitanen (27.12.2020–) Jussi Tupamäki (21.10.2020–27.12.2020) Pekka Tirkkonen (furloughed 21.10.2020–31.3.2021) | LähiTapiola Areena | 4,437 | Jani Tuppurainen |
| KalPa | Kuopio | Tommi Miettinen | Olvi Areena | 5,300 | Tommi Jokinen |
| KooKoo | Kouvola | Jussi Ahokas | Lumon Areena | 5,950 | Alexander Bonsaksen |
| Kärpät | Oulu | Mikko Manner | Oulun Energia Areena | 6,400 | Mika Pyörälä |
| Lukko | Rauma | Pekka Virta | Kivikylän Areena | 4,700 | Heikki Liedes |
| Pelicans | Lahti | Tommi Niemelä | Isku Areena | 5,371 | Hannes Björninen |
| SaiPa | Lappeenranta | Ville Hämäläinen (8.11.2020–27.3.2021) Tero Lehterä (furloughed 8.11.2020–27.3.2021) | Lappeenrannan jäähalli | 4,820 | Jarno Koskiranta |
| Sport | Vaasa | Risto Dufva | Vaasan Sähkö Areena | 4,164 | Erik Riska |
| Tappara | Tampere | Jussi Tapola | Tampereen jäähalli | 7,300 | Jukka Peltola |
| TPS | Turku | Raimo Helminen | Gatorade Center | 11,820 | Lauri Korpikoski |
| Ässät | Pori | Ari-Pekka Selin | Isomäki Areena | 6,350 | Niklas Appelgren |

## 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. Due to several games having been cancelled due to COVID-19 cases in various teams in March 2021, not all teams got an even number of games, therefore SM-liiga decided that the rankings of the regular season will be determined by points per game average.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | W+ | Pts | PPG | Final Result |
| 1 | Lukko | 60 | 38 | 7 | 15 | 204 | 114 | 90 | 6 | 127 | 2.12 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 2 | HIFK | 50 | 26 | 11 | 13 | 153 | 113 | 40 | 7 | 96 | 1.92 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 3 | TPS | 59 | 27 | 18 | 14 | 165 | 140 | 25 | 7 | 106 | 1.80 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 4 | Tappara | 59 | 26 | 13 | 20 | 171 | 151 | 20 | 8 | 99 | 1.68 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 5 | KalPa | 58 | 25 | 15 | 18 | 152 | 125 | 27 | 7 | 97 | 1.67 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 6 | Pelicans | 58 | 25 | 12 | 21 | 169 | 147 | 22 | 10 | 97 | 1.67 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 7 | Kärpät | 58 | 25 | 12 | 21 | 143 | 134 | 9 | 10 | 97 | 1.67 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 8 | Ilves | 53 | 25 | 10 | 18 | 161 | 142 | 19 | 3 | 88 | 1.66 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 9 | KooKoo | 55 | 25 | 11 | 19 | 165 | 125 | 40 | 5 | 91 | 1.65 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 10 | Sport | 54 | 19 | 12 | 23 | 123 | 140 | −17 | 6 | 75 | 1.39 | Advance to Wild-card round |
| 11 | HPK | 57 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 143 | 172 | −29 | 6 | 73 | 1.28 | |
| 12 | Ässät | 58 | 15 | 15 | 28 | 150 | 193 | −43 | 6 | 66 | 1.14 | |
| 13 | SaiPa | 53 | 13 | 9 | 31 | 95 | 147 | −52 | 3 | 51 | 0.96 | |
| 14 | Jukurit | 57 | 13 | 10 | 34 | 120 | 199 | −79 | 5 | 54 | 0.95 | |
| 15 | JYP | 59 | 13 | 12 | 34 | 139 | 211 | −72 | 4 | 55 | 0.93 | |
Rules for classification: 1) Points per game; 2) 3-point wins 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Head-to-head points.

## Playoffs

Contrary to the best of three format used in the past seasons, the wild-card round will take place in two games and the aggregate score decides the team which advances. The remaining rounds will be played in the best-of-5 format instead of the typical best-of-7 format

### Bracket

| Wild-card round (agg-of-2) | Wild-card round (agg-of-2) | Wild-card round (agg-of-2) | Quarter-finals (best-of-5) | Quarter-finals (best-of-5) | Quarter-finals (best-of-5) | Semi-finals (best-of-5) | Semi-finals (best-of-5) | Semi-finals (best-of-5) | Finals (best-of-5) | Finals (best-of-5) | Finals (best-of-5) |
| | | | 1 | Lukko | 3 | | | | | | |
| 8 | Ilves | 6 | 8 | Ilves | 0 | | | | | | |
| 9 | KooKoo | 4 | | | | 1 | Lukko | 3 | | | |
| | | | | | | 4 | Tappara | 1 | | | |
| | | | 4 | Tappara | 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) | | | |
| | | | 5 | KalPa | 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 | Lukko | 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) | 3 | TPS | 1 |
| | | | 2 | HIFK | 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) |
| 7 | Kärpät | 7 | 7 | Kärpät | 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) |
| 10 | Sport | 3 | | | | 2 | HIFK | 1 | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game | Bronze medal game |
| | | | | | | 3 | TPS | 3 |
| | | | 3 | TPS | 3 | | | | 2 | HIFK | 7 |
| | | | 6 | Pelicans | 2 | | | | 4 | Tappara | 1 |

### Wild-card round

The worse ranked team will play the first game at home. The aggregate score of the two games decides the winner of the round. There will be no over-time or penalty shoot-outs in the first game even if the score is tied. If the aggregate score is tied after the second game, overtime will be played in 20 minute periods until a goal is scored.
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Sport | 3–7 | Kärpät | 2–4 | 1–3 |
| KooKoo | 4–6 | Ilves | 1–4 | 3–2 |

### Quarter-finals

Lukko – Ilves 3-0 :
| 19.4.2021 | Lukko | Ilves | 5-3 ref |
| 20.4.2021 | Lukko | Ilves | 4-1 ref |
| 22.4.2021 | Ilves | Lukko | 2-5 ref |
| Lukko wins the series 3-0. ||||
TPS – Pelicans 3-2 :
| 19.4.2021 | TPS | Pelicans | 3-5 ref |
| 20.4.2021 | TPS | Pelicans | 2-0 ref |
| 22.4.2021 | Pelicans | TPS | 2-3 ref |
| 23.4.2021 | Pelicans | TPS | 5-3 ref |
| 25.4.2021 | TPS | Pelicans | 2-1 ref |
| TPS wins the series 3-2. ||||
HIFK – Kärpät 3-0 :
| 19.4.2021 | HIFK | Kärpät | 3-2 ref |
| 20.4.2021 | HIFK | Kärpät | 5-4 OT2 ref |
| 22.4.2021 | Kärpät | HIFK | 2-5 ref |
| HIFK wins the series 3-0. ||||
Tappara – KalPa 3-1 :
| 19.4.2021 | Tappara | KalPa | 1-0 ref |
| 20.4.2021 | Tappara | KalPa | 3-4 OT2 ref |
| 22.4.2021 | KalPa | Tappara | 1-2 ref |
| 23.4.2021 | KalPa | Tappara | 2-3 ref |
| Tappara wins the series 3-1. ||||

### Semi-finals

Lukko – Tappara 3-1 :
| 29.4.2021 | Lukko | Tappara | 3-2 OT1 ref |
| 30.4.2021 | Lukko | Tappara | 1-4 ref |
| 2.5.2021 | Tappara | Lukko | 1-4 ref |
| 3.5.2021 | Tappara | Lukko | 0-1 ref |
| Lukko wins the series 3-1. ||||
HIFK – TPS 1-3 :
| 29.4.2021 | HIFK | TPS | 4-1 ref |
| 30.4.2021 | HIFK | TPS | 2-3 OT1 ref |
| 2.5.2021 | TPS | HIFK | 3-0 ref |
| 3.5.2021 | TPS | HIFK | 3-2 OT1 ref |
| TPS wins the series 3-1. ||||

### Finals

Lukko wins the finals 3-1.

## Final rankings

| | Lukko |
| | TPS |
| | HIFK |
| 4 | Tappara |
| 5 | KalPa |
| 6 | Pelicans |
| 7 | Kärpät |
| 8 | Ilves |
| 9 | KooKoo |
| 10 | Sport |
| 11 | HPK |
| 12 | Ässät |
| 13 | SaiPa |
| 14 | Jukurit |
| 15 | JYP |