2012–13 SM-liiga season

The 2012–13 SM-liiga season was the 38th season of the SM-liiga, the top level of ice hockey in Finland, since the league's formation in 1975. The title was won by Ässät Pori who defeated Tappara Tampere in the finals.
==Teams==
Team 	City 	Head coach 	Arena 	Capacity	Captain
 	Pori 	Karri Kivi 	Porin jäähalli 	 	Ville Uusitalo
Blues 	Espoo 	Mikko Saarinen‡ 	Barona Areena 	 	Arto Laatikainen
HIFK 	Helsinki 	Raimo Summanen‡ 	Helsingin jäähalli 	 	Ville Peltonen
HPK 	Hämeenlinna 	Ari-Pekka Selin 	Ritarihalli 	 	Ville Viitaluoma
Ilves 	Tampere 	Tuomas Tuokkola‡	Tampereen jäähalli 	 	Erkki Rajamäki
Jokerit 	Helsinki 	Tomi Lämsä 	Hartwall Areena 	 	Ossi Väänänen
JYP 	 	Jyrki Aho 	Synergia-areena 	 	Éric Perrin
KalPa 	Kuopio 	Jari Laukkanen 	Niiralan monttu 	 	Sami Kapanen
Kärpät 	Oulu 	Hannu Aravirta 	Oulun Energia Areena	 	Ilkka Mikkola
Lukko 	Rauma 	Risto Dufva 	Äijänsuo Arena 	 	Otto Honkaheimo
Pelicans	Lahti 	Kai Suikkanen 	Isku Areena 	 	Tommi Paakkolanvaara
SaiPa 	Lappeenranta	Pekka Tirkkonen 	Kisapuisto 	 	Ville Koho
Tappara 	Tampere 	Jukka Rautakorpi	Tampereen jäähalli 	 	Tuukka Mäntylä
TPS 	Turku 	Juha Pajuoja‡ 	HK Arena 	 	Ville Vahalahti
* Head coaches marked with ‡ took their jobs mid-season.
==Regular season==
Each team played four times against every other team (twice home and twice away), getting to 52 games. Additionally, the teams were divided to two groups, where teams would play one extra game. One group included Ässät, Blues, HIFK, Jokerit, Kärpät, Lukko and TPS, while other had HPK, Ilves, JYP, KalPa, Pelicans, SaiPa and Tappara.
Additionally, there were two games where teams could choose the opponents. These were played back-to-back in January and the choices were made in December, with team with lowest point total to that date was able to choose first. These pairs were: Pelicans-Ilves, TPS-Lukko, Ässät-Blues, HIFK-HPK, Tappara-Jokerit, Kärpät-KalPa and SaiPa-JYP.
Top six advanced straight to quarter-finals, while teams between 7th and 10th positions played wild card round for the final two spots. The last-placed team Ilves had to play best-of-seven series against Mestis winner Jukurit.
Team 	GP	W 	OTW	OTL	L 	GF 	GA 	+/−	P
Jokerit 	60	28	10 	7 	15	168	136	+32	111
Tappara 	60	29	7 	7 	17	178	145	+33	108
JYP 	60	28	5 	9 	18	161	142	+19	103
Ässät 	60	27	8 	5 	20	160	130	+30	102
KalPa 	60	24	9 	7 	20	172	145	+27	97
HPK 	60	20	12 	12 	16	157	144	+13	96
Kärpät 	60	23	9 	6 	22	172	150	+22	93
HIFK 	60	26	3 	7 	24	153	163	-10	91
SaiPa 	60	23	7 	6 	24	162	173	-11	89
Lukko 	60	24	3 	8 	25	151	170	-19	86
Pelicans	60	22	7 	3 	28	163	180	-17	83
Blues 	60	21	6 	5 	28	151	164	-13	80
TPS 	60	12	8 	12 	28	144	182	-38	64
Ilves 	60	13	6 	6 	35	124	193	-69	57
== Playoffs ==
=== Wild card round (best-of-three) ===
Kärpät-Lukko 1-2
:Kärpät-Lukko 4-5
:Lukko-Kärpät 2-4
:Kärpät-Lukko 2-3 (OT)
HIFK-SaiPa 2-1
:HIFK-SaiPa 2-3 (OT)
:SaiPa-HIFK 2-3 (OT)
:HIFK-SaiPa 5-2
=== Quarterfinals (best-of-seven) ===
Jokerit-Lukko 2-4
:Jokerit-Lukko 3-0
:Lukko-Jokerit 5-2
:Jokerit-Lukko 3-4 (OT)
:Lukko-Jokerit 2-1
:Jokerit-Lukko 5-2
:Lukko-Jokerit 3-1
Tappara-HIFK 4-1
:Tappara-HIFK 3-1
:HIFK-Tappara 1-4
:Tappara-HIFK 3-2
:HIFK-Tappara 3-2
:Tappara-HIFK 3-1
JYP-HPK 4-1
:JYP-HPK 3-1
:HPK-JYP 3-2
:JYP-HPK 4-2
:HPK-JYP 2-3 (OT)
:JYP-HPK 5-1
Ässät-KalPa 4-1
:Ässät-KalPa 2-1
:KalPa-Ässät 0-2
:Ässät-KalPa 5-2
:KalPa-Ässät 5-0
:Ässät-KalPa 3-0
=== Semifinals (best-of-seven) ===
Tappara-Lukko 4-0
:Tappara-Lukko 3-2 (OT)
:Lukko-Tappara 3-4 (OT)
:Tappara-Lukko 3-0
:Lukko-Tappara 0-5
JYP-Ässät 1-4
:JYP-Ässät 3-4 (OT)
:Ässät-JYP 2-0
:JYP-Ässät 1-4
:Ässät-JYP 1-2
:JYP-Ässät 0-1
=== Bronze Medal Game ===
:JYP-Lukko 2-0
=== Finals (best-of-seven) ===
Tappara-Ässät 2-4
:Tappara-Ässät 2-1
:Ässät-Tappara 5-1
:Tappara-Ässät 3-2
:Ässät-Tappara 4-0
:Tappara-Ässät 1-2 (OT)
:Ässät-Tappara 3-2
==Relegation (best-of-seven)==
Ilves-Jukurit 4-1
:Ilves-Jukurit 2-0
:Jukurit-Ilves 1-3
:Ilves-Jukurit 2-1 (OT)
:Jukurit-Ilves 7-4
:Ilves-Jukurit 4-2
==Team Photos==
12-13Tappara.jpg|Tappara Tampere
==External links==
*Official site of the SM-liiga
Category:SM-Liiga season
Category:2013 in hockey