2018–19 Mestis season

The 2018–19 Mestis season is the 19th season of Mestis, the second highest level of ice hockey in Finland after Liiga. KOOVEE was promoted from Suomi-sarja due to Espoo United declaring bankruptcy at the end of last season.
==Clubs==
Team 	City 	Home arena, capacity 	Founded	Head coach
Hermes 	Kokkola 	Kokkolan jäähalli, 4,200 	1953 	Janne Tuunanen
IPK 	Iisalmi 	Kankaan jäähalli, 1,326 	1966 	Janne Sinkkonen 3.1.2019 Tommi Miettinen
Jokipojat 	Joensuu 	Mehtimäki Ice Hall, 4,800	1953 	Jouni Varis
Ketterä 	Imatra 	Imatra Spa Areena, 1,200 	1957 	Maso Lehtonen
KeuPa HT 	Keuruu 	Keuruun Jäähalli, 1,100 	1995 	Niko Härkönen
K-Vantaa 	Vantaa 	Trio Areena, 2,004 	1994 	Simo Mälkiä 28.1.2019 Reijo Ruotsalainen
KOOVEE 	Tampere 	Hakametsä 2, 1050 	1929 	Juha Pajuoja
LeKi 	Lempäälä 	Masku Areena, 800 	1904 	Miikka Kuusela
Peliitat 	Heinola 	Versowood Areena, 2,975 	1984 	Jani Keinänen 9.2.2019 Vesa Petäjä
RoKi 	Rovaniemi 	Lappi Areena, 3,500 	1979 	Santeri Immonen
SaPKo 	Savonlinna	Winter Salon rink, 2,833 	1929 	Pasi Räsänen
TUTO Hockey	Turku 	Marli Areena, 3,000 	1929 	Miika Elomo
==Regular season==
Top eight advance to the Mestis playoffs while the bottom two face the top two teams from Suomi-sarja for a relegation playoff. Since the highest series of Finnish hockey is a closed series no team will be promoted to Liiga.
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Penalty minutes.
==Playoffs==
Playoffs are being played in three stages. Each stage is a best-of-7 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===
===Quarterfinals===
===Semifinals===
===Bronze medal game===
=== Finals ===
Ketterä wins the finals 4-1.
==Relegation playoffs==
The bottom two teams faced the top two teams from Suomi-sarja for a best-of-7 series were the winners got a place in Mestis for the next season. Peliitat and KOOVEE both won their series and thus avoided relegation.
==See also==
* 2018–19 Liiga season
==References==
Category:Mestis seasons
Mestis
Mestis