2023–24 Liiga season

2023–24 SM-liiga
LeagueLiiga
SportIce hockey
Defending championsTappara (2022–23)
DurationSeptember 2023 – April 2024
Number of games60
Number of teams15
TV partner(s)Telia
C More
Regular season
Season championsTappara
  Runners-upIlves
Season MVPJerry Turkulainen (JYP)
Top scorerOula Palve (Ilves)
Playoffs
Playoffs MVPChristian Heljanko
Finals championsTappara
  Runners-upPelicans
Liiga seasons

The 2023–24 Liiga season was the 49th season of the Liiga, the top level of ice hockey in Finland, since its formation in 1975.

Format

The regular season started on Tuesday, 12 September 2023, with a match between Rauman Lukko and Hämeenlinnan Pallokerho in Rauma. The match was the only one of the day. As in previous seasons, 450 matches will be played in the regular season, 60 for each team. There are 25 full rounds of seven matches played, 16 of which are on Saturdays. A little more than half of the regular season, 262 matches, are played on Fridays and Saturdays. Most weekday games are played on Wednesdays (98). There were a total of 106 game days in the regular season, i.e. eight less than in the previous season.[1]

As usual, the series is on break in November for a week and a half while the national teams play in the Euro Hockey Tour. The Christmas break lasts 5–7 days, depending on the team, with the exception of KalPa, which participates on the 26th–31st of December in the Spengler Cup in Switzerland.[2] For other teams, the Christmas break ends on Saint Stephen's day, 26 December. The regular season ends on Tuesday, 12 March 2024.[1]

Teams

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Location of teams in 2023–24 SM-liiga
Team City Head coach Arena Capacity Captain
HIFK Helsinki Ville Peltonen Helsingin jäähalli 8,200 Jori Lehterä
HPK Hämeenlinna Maso Lehtonen Pohjantähti Areena 5,360 Juuso Hietanen
Ilves Tampere Antti Pennanen Nokia Arena 12,700 Niklas Friman
Jukurit Mikkeli Olli Jokinen Ikioma Areena 4,200 Pekka Jormakka
JYP Jyväskylä Jukka Rautakorpi 20 Dec 2023[3]
Mikko Heiskanen 		LähiTapiola Areena 4,437 Teemu Eronen
KalPa Kuopio Petri Karjalainen Olvi Areena 5,300 Tuomas Kiiskinen
KooKoo Kouvola Olli Salo Lumon Areena 5,950 Otto Paajanen
Kärpät Oulu Lauri Marjamäki 18 Dec 2023[4]
Ville Mäntymaa 		Oulun Energia Areena 6,300 Atte Ohtamaa
Lukko Rauma Tomi Lämsä Kivikylän Areena 4,500 Julius Mattila
Pelicans Lahti Tommi Niemelä Isku Areena 4,403 Miika Roine
SaiPa Lappeenranta Ville Hämäläinen Lappeenrannan jäähalli 4,820 Miska Siikonen
Sport Vaasa Risto Dufva Vaasan Sähkö Areena 5,185 Sebastian Stålberg
Tappara Tampere Rikard Grönborg Nokia Arena 12,700 Otto Rauhala
TPS Turku Tommi Miettinen Gatorade Center 10,500 Juhani Jasu
Ässät Pori Jere Härkälä Enersense Areena 6,150 Jesse Joensuu

Regular season standings

Top six advanced straight to the quarter-finals, while teams between 7th and 10th positions play a wild card round for the final two spots. The SM-liiga is a closed series and thus there is no relegation to the Mestis.

Pos Team Pld W OTW OTL L GF GA GD Pts Final Result
1 Tappara 60 34 8 5 13 200 141 +59 123 Advance to Quarterfinals
2 Ilves 60 33 7 7 13 197 144 +53 120
3 Pelicans 60 31 4 8 17 177 147 +30 109
4 Kärpät 60 28 8 6 18 174 147 +27 106
5 Jukurit 60 30 3 7 20 197 147 +50 103
6 HIFK 60 26 7 11 16 179 139 +40 103
7 KalPa 60 25 6 7 22 169 156 +13 94 Advance to Wild-card round
8 Lukko 60 22 10 6 22 157 160 −3 92
9 TPS 60 17 14 5 24 150 166 −16 84
10 Sport 60 21 5 10 24 155 174 −19 83
11 Ässät 60 19 7 10 24 136 144 −8 81
12 KooKoo 60 17 11 6 26 175 178 −3 79
13 JYP 60 16 7 7 30 152 196 −44 69
14 HPK 60 15 4 6 35 111 184 −73 59
15 SaiPa 60 5 10 10 35 125 231 −106 45
Source: [1]


[5]

Statistics

Scoring leaders

The following shows the top ten players leading the league in points.[6]

Player Team GP G A Pts +/– PIM
Finland Oula Palve Ilves 60 20 44 64 +19 63
Finland Jerry Turkulainen JYP 60 21 42 63 +4 18
Finland Eemeli Suomi Ilves 58 21 38 59 +17 22
Finland Teemu Turunen Kärpät 60 30 27 57 +3 20
Finland Anton Levtchi Tappara 55 19 38 57 +11 22
Finland Ville Koivunen Kärpät 59 22 34 56 +7 26
Finland Jori Lehterä HIFK 57 6 50 56 +10 36
United States Ryan Lasch Pelicans 55 9 45 54 +14 14
Canada Nathan Schnarr Pelicans 51 18 32 50 +23 28
Canada Ben Tardif KooKoo 57 15 35 50 +10 74

Playoffs

Bracket

Wild-card round (best-of-3) Quarter-finals (best-of-7) Semi-finals (best-of-7) Finals (best-of-7)
1 Tappara 4
7 KalPa 2 9 TPS 2
10 Sport 0 1 Tappara 4
7 KalPa 1
2 Ilves 1 (Pairings are re-seeded after the first and second round)
7 KalPa 4
1 Tappara 4
3 Pelicans 1
3 Pelicans 4
8 Lukko 1 6 HIFK 3
9 TPS 2 3 Pelicans 4 Bronze medal game
4 Kärpät 1
4 Kärpät 4 4 Kärpät 3
5 Jukurit 2 7 KalPa 2


Wild-card round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Bronze medal game

19 April 2024
18:30		Kärpät3–2 OT1
(1–0, 0–2, 1–0, 1–0)		KalPaOulun Energia Areena, Oulu
Attendance: 4,528
Game reference
Tomi KarhunenGoaliesStefanos LekkasReferees:
Kristian Vikman
Riku Brander
Linesmen:
Luka Mäkinen
Juho-Pekka Inkinen
Björkqvist (Antonen, Junttila) – 17:501–0
1–128:19 – Simontaival (Elorinne, Räsänen) (DP)
1–228:44 – Räsänen (Simontaival, Gallet)
Berglund (Koivisto, Turunen) – 47:582–2
Turunen (Koivunen, Koivisto) (PP1) – 71:083–2
4 minPenalties8 min
25Shots28

Finals

20 April 2024
17:00		Tappara3–1
(2–0, 0–0, 1–1)		PelicansNokia Arena, Tampere
Attendance: 12,144
Game reference
Christian HeljankoGoaliesNiklas KokkoReferees:
Joonas Kova
Antti Boman
Linesmen:
Samuli Niskanen
Lauri Nikulainen
Puhakka (Halloran, Keskinen) – 02:041–0
Leskinen (Halloran, Keskinen) – 19:022–0
Savinainen (Kontiola, Juolevi) – 49:293–0
3–159:54 – Horký (Bryggman, Lasch)
2 minPenalties8 min
25Shots24
22 April 2024
18:30		Pelicans2–3
(0–1, 1–2, 1–0)		TapparaIsku Areena, Lahti
Attendance: 4,403
Game reference
Niklas KokkoGoaliesChristian HeljankoReferees:
Aleksi Rantala
Stefan Fonselius
Linesmen:
Hannu Sormunen
Joni Pekkala
0–114:52 – Liedes (Rauhala, Ekberg)
0–228:02 – Savinainen (Camper, Kontiola)
0–334:21 – Tuulola (Savinainen, Granath)
Horký (Schnarr) – 37:531–3
Utunen (Jordán, Lasch) – 55:232–3
6 minPenalties6 min
52Shots48
24 April 2024
18:30		Tappara1–2 OT2
(0–1, 1–0, 0–0, 0–0, 0–1)		PelicansNokia Arena, Tampere
Attendance: 12,313
Game reference
Christian HeljankoGoaliesNiklas KokkoReferees:
Joonas Kova
Antti Boman
Linesmen:
Samuli Niskanen
Lauri Nikulainen
0–116:47 – Horký
Rauhala (Vittasmäki) – 20:271–1
1–284:40 – Carlsson (Lasch, Bryggman)
6 minPenalties27 min
58Shots61
26 April 2024
18:30		Pelicans3–4 OT1
(2–0, 0–0, 1–3, 0–1)		TapparaIsku Areena, Lahti
Attendance: 4,403
Game reference
Niklas KokkoGoaliesChristian HeljankoReferees:
Aleksi Rantala
Stefan Fonselius
Linesmen:
Hannu Sormunen
Joni Pekkala
Haatanen (Král, Aaltonen) – 0:491–0
Utunen (Král, Schnarr) – 15:262–0
2–144:19 – Levtchi (Savinainen, Somppi)
2–250:35 – Levtchi (Tanus, Kontiola) (PP)
2–355:42 – Levtchi (Somppi, Savinainen)
Haatanen (Král, Horký) (PG-VR) – 59:203–3
3–460:48 – Baptiste (Savinainen, Kemiläinen)
6 minPenalties4 min
29Shots55
28 April 2024
17:00		Tappara3–0
(0–0, 1–0, 2–0)		PelicansNokia Arena, Tampere
Attendance: 12,700
Game reference
Christian HeljankoGoaliesNiklas KokkoReferees:
Antti Boman
Joonas Kova
Linesmen:
Samuli Niskanen
Lauri Nikulainen
Liedes (Rauhala, Baptiste) – 31:301–0
Levtchi (Kontiola, Kemiläinen) (PP) – 41:292–0
Granath (ENG - PP) – 58:133–0
4 minPenalties6 min
48Shots34

Tappara wins the finals 4-1.

Final rankings

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

Broadcast rights

For the 2023–2024 season, Telia had transferred the television rights of the SM-liiga to MTV, which it owns. Telia had acquired the broadcast rights starting from the 2018–2019 season, and with the new agreement MTV has the rights until the end of the 2026–2027 season. MTV pays more than 90 million euros for television rights over four seasons, and the company has admitted that the operation is loss-making.[7] The broadcasts are produced by MTV and during the season games can be seen live from C More, Discovery+, DNA, Elisa Viihde, MTV and Telia.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b "Kauden 2023–24 otteluohjelma tarjoaa huippuhetkiä koko runkosarjan ajalle". liiga.fi. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  2. ^ "KalPa mukaan Spengler Cupiin!". kalpa.fi. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  3. ^ "Jukka Rautakorpi sai potkut Jypistä - Liiga - Aamulehti" (in Finnish). Aamulehti. 2023-12-20. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  4. ^ "SM-liiga: Lauri Marjamäelle potkut Kärpistä - SM-liiga - Ilta-Sanomat" (in Finnish). Ilta-Sanomat. 2023-12-18. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  5. ^ "Joukkuetilastot | Runkosarja 2022-2023 | Tilastot | Liiga". Liiga.fi. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  6. ^ "Player stats". Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  7. ^ "Telia siirsi kaikessa hiljaisuudessa kymmenien miljoonien eurojen tappiolliset Liiga-oikeudet MTV:lle – pian MTV aloitti muutosneuvottelut". Yle Urheilu (in Finnish). 2023-09-14. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  8. ^ "Katso, mistä näet jääkiekon Liigaa halvimmalla – samalla lähetyksellä eri suoratoistopalveluissa täysin eri hinta". Yle Urheilu (in Finnish). 2023-09-13. Retrieved 2023-11-06.