2016–17 Mestis season

The 2016–17 Mestis season was the 17th season of Mestis, the second highest level of ice hockey in Finland after Liiga. Previous seasons champion Jukurit got a place in the Liiga. IPK got promoted from Suomi-sarja at the end of last season. Espoo United got a place in Mestis after Espoo Blues suffered bankruptcy and the league was exceptionally played with 13 teams.

2016–17 Mestis
League	Mestis
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	September 2016 – March 2017
Number of teams	13
Regular season
Best record	SaPKo
Runners-up	TuTo
Top scorer	Jonatan Tanus
Relegated to Suomi-sarja	JYP-Akatemia
Playoffs
Playoffs MVP	Teemu Lepaus
Finals champions	SaPKo
Runners-up	Kiekko-Vantaa

At the end of the season SaPKo won both the regular season and the playoffs. Hokki and IPK retained their place in Mestis, while JYP-Akatemia was relegated. Hokki faced bankruptcy during the off-season and thus Imatran Ketterä were awarded a place in Mestis for the next season.

Clubs

Team	City	Home arena, capacity	Founded	Head coach
Espoo United	Espoo	Espoo Metro Areena, 6,982	2016	Timo Hirvonen
Hermes	Kokkola	Kokkolan jäähalli, 4,200	1953	Antti Karhula
Hokki	Kajaani	Kajaanin Jäähalli, -	1968	Jari Laukkanen
Iisalmen Peli-Karhut	Iisalmi	Kankaan jäähalli, -	1966	Jukka Niiranen17.1.2017 Janne Sinkkonen
Jokipojat	Joensuu	Mehtimäki Ice Hall, 4,800	1953	Ari Aaltonen20.2.2017 Jouni
JYP-Akatemia	Jyväskylä	Synergia Areena, 4,618	2008	Jukka Ahvenjärvi
KeuPa HT	Keuruu	Keuruun Jäähalli, 1,100	1995	Mikko Heiskanen
Kiekko-Vantaa	Vantaa	Trio Areena, 3,700	1994	Simo Mälkiä
LeKi	Lempäälä	Masku Areena, 800	1904	Miikka Kuusela
Peliitat	Heinola	Versowood Areena, 2,975	1984	Marko Tuomainen
Rovaniemen Kiekko	Rovaniemi	Lappi Areena, 3,500	1979	Petteri Hirvonen13.2.2017 Juha Juujärvi
SaPKo	Savonlinna	Talvisalo ice rink, 2,833	1929	Pasi Räsänen
Tuto	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.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final Result
1	SaPKo	50	32	5	2	11	181	110	+71	108	Advance to playoffs
2	Tuto	50	28	3	2	17	167	114	+53	92
3	Kiekko-Vantaa	50	22	4	9	15	148	139	+9	83
4	Hermes	50	22	5	4	19	160	139	+21	80
5	Espoo United	50	20	5	7	18	132	138	−6	77
6	Jokipojat	50	18	5	8	19	136	143	−7	72
7	Peliitat	50	19	5	5	21	152	164	−12	72
8	KeuPa HT	50	19	6	3	22	144	156	−12	72
9	LeKi	50	20	3	2	25	143	155	−12	68
10	RoKi	50	16	7	3	24	148	154	−6	65
11	Hokki	50	15	6	8	21	116	135	−19	65	Qualification to the relegation playoffs
12	JYP-Akatemia	50	18	4	3	25	129	161	−32	65
13	Iisalmen Peli-Karhut	50	16	2	4	28	114	162	−48	56

Source: Tilastopalvelu.fi

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					Finals
	1	SaPKo	4
	8	KeuPa HT	0
						1	SaPKo	4
						5	Espoo United	0
	4	Hermes	2
	5	Espoo United	4
											1	SaPKo	4
											3	Kiekko-Vantaa	0
	2	Kiekko-Vantaa	4
	7	Jokipojat	0
						2	TuTo	2			Third place
						3	Kiekko-Vantaa	4
	3	Tuto	4								2	TuTo	0
	6	Peliitat	0								5	Espoo United	1

Relegation qualification

Bottom three teams of Mestis face the top two teams of Suomi-Sarja in a relegation qualification, where two top teams will get a place in Mestis for the next season. Each team will play against each other twice.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final Result
1	Hokki	8	6	0	0	2	33	15	+18	18	Play in Mestis for 2017–18 season
2	Iisalmen Peli-Karhut	11	5	1	1	4	26	16	+10	18
3	Ketterä	8	4	0	0	4	28	24	+4	12	Play in Suomi-sarja for 2017–18 season
4	JYP-Akatemia	8	3	0	1	4	19	22	−3	10
5	JHT	8	0	1	0	7	14	43	−29	2

Source: Tilastopalvelu.fi

Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Penalty minutes.

See also

2016–17 Liiga season