2020–21 Naisten Liiga season

The 2020–21 Naisten Liiga season was the thirty-eighth season of the Naisten Liiga, Finland's elite women's ice hockey league, since the league's creation in 1982. The season began, as scheduled, on 5 September 2020, making the Naisten Liiga the first women's national ice hockey league in Europe to return to play for the 2020–21 season.
== Preliminary series ==
The addition of another team necessitated slight modification of the season format introduced for the 2019–20 season. With eleven participating teams, the twenty-game preliminary series was played strictly as a double round-robin without the addition of the two extra Opening Weekend Tournament games typically needed. The preliminaries were scheduled to be played during 5 September to 13 December 2020.
The season began as scheduled on 5 September 2020, making the Naisten Liiga the first women's national ice hockey league in Europe – and, quite possibly, in the world – to return to play for the 2020–21 season. The first game of the season saw Ilves Tampere beat TPS Turku 4–3 in overtime at Tesoman jäähalli.
On 1 December 2020, an emergency meeting of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association was held in response to a significant rise in cases and hospitalizations related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland during the preceding weeks. It was ultimately determined that all leagues under the Association's administration would suspend play from 2 to 31 December 2020, including the Naisten Liiga. The Naisten Liiga was expected to begin the regular season and lower division series in January, as outlined in the original season schedule, though the Finnish Ice Hockey Association expressed a desire to stage the games postponed during the period of suspended activity when play resumed.
Later in December, it was decided that Naisten Liiga teams would not attempt to play the games missed during the pause and would instead proceed directly to the regular season. With this determination, 29 November 2020 retroactively became the last day of the preliminary series, as it was the last day in which Naisten Liiga games were contested before the suspension. 
=== Standings ===
Kiekko-Espoo and KalPa, the two teams from the cancelled 2020 Aurora Borealis Cup final, continued to dominate the league in the preliminaries, ranking first and second at the conclusion of the series. Less expected were the third and fourth ranked teams, HIFK and TPS, which had both played in the lower division during the previous season and TPS had very nearly been eliminated in the 2020 qualifiers. Both teams were bolstered in the 2020–21 season by an influx of international talent.
Kiekko-Espoo were the regular season champions for the third consecutive season.
Pos	Team 	Pld	W 	OTW	OTL	L 	GF	GA 	GD 	Pts	Placement
1 	Kiekko-Espoo 	18 	15	0 	0 	3 	88	24 	+64	45 	Regular season
2 	KalPa 	18 	14	1 	0 	3 	94	34 	+60	44 	Regular season
3 	HIFK 	19 	11	4 	0 	4 	77	42 	+35	41 	Regular season
4 	TPS 	18 	10	1 	2 	5 	75	55 	+20	34 	Regular season
5 	Ilves 	19 	9 	2 	3 	5 	60	42 	+18	34 	Regular season
6 	HPK 	19 	10	1 	2 	6 	62	48 	+14	34 	Regular season
7 	Team Kuortane	17 	7 	0 	1 	9 	50	52 	−2 	22 	Lower division
8 	Kärpät 	19 	7 	0 	2 	10	65	56 	+9 	23 	Lower division
9 	RoKi 	19 	6 	1 	0 	12	34	82 	−48	20 	Lower division
10 	Lukko 	17 	1 	0 	0 	16	26	108	−82	3 	Lower division
11 	Sport 	17 	0 	0 	0 	17	16	104	−88	0 	Lower division
Official ranking
 	Team 	
1	K-Espoo	2.50
2	KalPa 	2.44
3	HIFK 	2.16
4	TPS 	1.89
5	Ilves 	1.79
6	HPK 	1.79
 	Team 	
7 	Kuortane	1.29
8 	Kärpät 	1.21
9 	RoKi 	1.05
10	Lukko 	0.18
11	Sport 	0.00
== Regular season ==
The ten-game Naisten Liiga regular season, also called the upper division series, is played by the six top-ranked teams from the preliminary series.
Following the December stoppage, play resumed on 8 January 2021. The decision was made to begin the regular season (upper and lower divisional series) rather than attempt to makeup the games missed during the pause, resulting in teams with seventeen to nineteen games played at the conclusion of the preliminaries. As the league had already adopted the use of points per game for league rankings, the impact of dropping the missed games on the remainder of the season was negligible.
Pos	Team 	Pld	W 	OTW	OTL	L 	GF 	GA	GD 	Pts	Postseason placement
1 	Kiekko-Espoo	27 	21	1 	0 	5 	124	46	+78	65 	Playoff quarterfinals
2 	KalPa 	25 	18	1 	0 	6 	121	51	+70	56 	Playoff quarterfinals
3 	HIFK 	27 	16	4 	1 	6 	104	59	+45	57 	Playoff quarterfinals
4 	Ilves 	28 	12	3 	5 	8 	83 	66	+17	47 	Playoff quarterfinals
5 	HPK 	29 	13	2 	3 	11	85 	78	+7 	46 	Playoff quarterfinals
6 	TPS 	27 	11	2 	2 	12	91 	97	−6 	39 	Playoff quarterfinals
===Standings===
Official ranking
 	Team 	
1	K-Espoo	2.41
2	KalPa 	2.24
3	HIFK 	2.11
4	Ilves 	1.68
5	HPK 	1.59
6	TPS 	1.44
== Lower division series ==
The lower division series was modified to be played by the five lowest-ranked teams from the preliminary series, rather than the standard four, and the top team from the cross-qualifiers of the Naisten Mestis, rather than the top-two from the cross-qualifiers, to account for the additional Naisten Liiga team. The series was originally scheduled to be played during 16 January to 21 February 2021 but was ultimately played during 9 January to 28 February 2021.
=== Standings ===
Pos	Team 	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD 	Pts	Postseason placement
1 	Kärpät 	10 	8	0 	0 	2	47	12	+35	24 	Playoff quarterfinals
2 	Team Kuortane	10 	7	1 	0 	2	33	17	+16	23 	Playoff quarterfinals
3 	RoKi 	10 	7	0 	1 	2	31	21	+10	22 	Qualifiers
4 	Lukko 	10 	3	0 	0 	7	21	37	−16	9 	Qualifiers
5 	Sport 	10 	2	1 	0 	7	28	44	−16	8 	Qualifiers
6 	JYP 	10 	1	0 	1 	8	23	52	−29	4 	Qualifiers
Official ranking
 	Team 	
1	Kärpät 	2.40
2	Kuortane	2.30
3	RoKi 	2.20
4	Lukko 	0.90
5	Sport 	0.80
6	JYP 	0.40
==Playoffs==
==Quarterfinals==
The best-of-three quarterfinals began on 3 March 2021 and were scheduled to be continued on 6 March with a third 7 March, if necessary. Home ice advantage was granted to the higher seeded teams for the first and potential third games. Each of the four quarterfinal series concluded in two game sweeps in favor of the higher seeded teams.
===(1) Kiekko-Espoo vs. (8) Team Kuortane===
Kiekko-Espoo earned the first seed after winning the regular season title with 2.41 points per game, marking the team's third consecutive regular season victory, and finished with 65 points in 27 games. Team Kuortane defeated RoKi Rovaniemi in the last game on the last day of the season to claim second place in the lower division series and secure the eighth seed. The teams last met in the 2019–20 Aurora Borealis Cup semifinals, which Kiekko-Espoo won in three games. They faced one another only once during the 2020–21 season, a 5–3 victory for Kiekko-Espoo on 14 November 2020.
Game times in Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00)
===(2) KalPa vs. (7) Kärpät===
KalPa Kuopio secured the second seed after completing the regular season with 2.24 points per game (56 points in 25 games), propelled by the elite production of forwards Elisa Holopainen, who scored 32 goals and 22 assists (54 points) in 18 games of the qualifiers to rank first in every scoring metric of the series, and Matilda Nilsson, the regular season goal scoring champio], who tallied 8 goals in 7 regular season (upper division) games. Kärpät Oulu topped the lower division standings to secure the seventh seed with 24 points in 10 games. The teams last met in the 2019–20 Aurora Borealis Cup semifinals, which Kiekko-Espoo won in three games. KalPa won both games in this season's series during the Naisten Liiga qualifiers. 
Game times in Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00)
===(3) HIFK vs. (6) TPS===
Having gained promotion to the Naisten Liiga just two seasons prior, HIFK Helsinki continued their meteoric rise to finish third in the regular season with 2.11 points per game (57 points in 27 games). TPS Turku concluded the season with 1.44 points per game (39 points in 27 games) to finish sixth in the regular season and secure the team's first appearance in the playoffs – an impressive return after narrowly avoiding relegation in the previous season. HIFK won three of four matchups during the 2020–21 season. HIFK forward Michaela Pejzlová, the regular season scoring champion, scored 9 points in the season series with TPS. 
Game times in Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00)
===(4) Ilves vs. (5) HPK===
Ilves Tampere earned the fourth seed after finishing the season with 47 points in 28 games for a 1.68 points percentage and HPK Hämeenlinna earned the fifth seed after finishing the season with 46 points in 29 games for a 1.59 points percentage. This was the first quarterfinal match-up between the two teams since 2015 and their fourth playoff match-up in ten seasons. HPK won two of the three previous series, including defeating Ilves in the 2011 Aurora Borealis Cup final. HPK won three of four games in this year's season series.
Game times in Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00)
==Semifinals==
===(1) Kiekko-Espoo vs. (4) Ilves===
Game times in Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00)
===(2) KalPa vs. (3) HIFK===
Game times in Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00)
==Bronze medal game==
==Finals==
Game times in Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00)
 
 
==Qualification series==
=== Standings ===
Pos	Team 	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L 	GF	GA	GD 	Pts	Postseason placement
1 	RoKi 	16 	9	1 	2 	4 	55	42	+13	31 	Qualify for Naisten Liiga
2 	Sport	16 	7	2 	0 	7 	53	59	−6 	25 	Qualify for Naisten Liiga
3 	Lukko	16 	3	2 	2 	9 	40	60	−20	15 	Relegated to Naisten Mestis
4 	JYP 	16 	1	1 	3 	11	38	76	−38	8 	Relegated to Naisten Mestis
Official ranking
 	Team 	Pld	Pts	
1	RoKi 	16 	31 	1.94
2	Sport	16 	25 	1.56
3	Lukko	16 	15 	0.94
4	JYP 	16 	8 	0.50
=== Results ===
 
== References ==
== External links ==
* Naisten Liiga official website (in Finnish)
Category:2021 in ice hockey