Naisten Mestis

Finnish second-tier ice hockey league

Naisten Mestis
FormerlyNaisten I-divisioona
SportIce hockey
Founded1985
FounderFinnish Ice Hockey Association
First seasonas Naisten I-divisoona, 1985–86
as Naisten Mestis, 2012–13
AdministratorJesse Nuutinen
No. of teams8
CountryFinland
Most recent
champion(s)		HIFK Akatemia
(2023)
TV partner(s)Leijonat.tv
Promotion toNaisten Liiga
Relegation toNaisten Suomi-sarja
Official websiteleijonat.fi

Naisten Mestis (lit. 'Women's Championship Series'; from Mestaruussarja, 'Championship series') is the second-highest women's ice hockey league in Finland. The league was founded as Naisten I-divisioona ('Women's First Division') in 1985 by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, when the number of teams playing in the Naisten SM-sarja (renamed 'Naisten Liiga' in 2017) was limited. It was renamed Naisten Mestis prior to the 2012–13 season.

Series format

The Mestis season format has changed many times since the founding of the league in 1985. The current format was first published by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 2022 and was fully implemented in the 2023–24 season.

2023 to present

Both the Naisten Liiga and Naisten Mestis are intended to operate with ten teams using a quadruple round-robin tournament system in which each team plays a 36-game season.[1]

The top-two teams in the Naisten Mestis have the opportunity to earn promotion to the Naisten Liiga in a promotion series against the bottom ranked Naisten Liiga teams during the postseason. Similarly, the bottom-two teams in the Naisten Mestis must defend their league places in a relegation series against the top-two teams in the Naisten Suomi-sarja.[1]

Previous formats

2022–23 season

Excepting the ten teams of the Naisten Liiga, all women's ice hockey teams competing at the national level began the season in the Naisten Mestis qualifiers (Finnish: karsinta). The Naisten Mestis qualifiers, which were contested during September to December 2022, involved eighteen teams divided into three groups of five to seven teams. In the closed groups, each team played every other team at least twice. The top eight teams at the end of the qualifiers continued in the Naisten Mestis and the remaining teams filled the ranks of the Naisten Suomi-sarja.[1]

The top-two teams from the Naisten Suomi-sarja would join the eight Naisten Mestis teams for the 2023–23 season to fill all ten available slots.[1]

2019–2022

Qualifiers

With the exception of the Naisten Liiga teams, all club representative teams started the season in the Naisten Mestis Qualifiers (Finnish: Karsinta). Each team was sorted into a group (Finnish: lohko) of five to eight teams; the number of groups was determined by the total number of teams competing and each group was loosely defined by geography, with proximate teams being sorted together. Each team played a total of fifteen or sixteen matches within their division. The points earned in those games determined the team's ranking within their division; victories earned three points, overtime victories earned two points, and overtime losses earned one point. Teams that ranked forth or lower in each division at the end of the qualifiers did not qualify to play in the Naisten Mestis and continued the season in the Naisten Suomi-sarja. The qualifying round ran from the beginning of the season in September to late November or early December.

Cross qualifiers

The team with the highest point total from each division of the qualifiers moved on the cross-qualifying round (Finnish: ristiinkarsinta). If there were an odd number of divisions, the second-placed team with the highest point total of all remaining teams also moved on. The cross qualifiers were a round-robin tournament, each team faced all other participating teams once. The two teams earning the highest point totals at the end of the tournament continued their seasons in the Lower Division (Finnish: Alempi jatkosarja) of the Naisten Liiga and had the opportunity to gain promotion to the Naisten Liiga for the following season. The teams ranked third and lower in the cross qualifiers continued the season in the Naisten Mestis regular season. The cross qualifying round was played in late November and/or early December.

Regular season

The teams ranked third and lower in the cross qualifiers and the teams that finished second or third in each division of the qualifiers filled the ranks of the Naisten Mestis regular season. If the number of divisions was odd, the third ranked team from the qualifiers with the smallest point total would not qualify and moved to the Naisten Suomi-sarja so that an even number of teams was maintained in the Naisten Mestis. Each team in the regular season played an equal number of games against each of the other teams. The regular season ran from January to March.

Teams

2023–24 season

Naisten Mestis is located in Finland
APV
APV
HIFK Ak
HIFK Ak
HPK Ak
HPK Ak
PaRa
PaRa
SaiPa
SaiPa
class=notpageimage|
Location in Finland of teams participating in the 2023–24 Naisten Mestis season.

The Finnish Ice Hockey Association intended for the Naisten Mestis to comprise ten teams in the 2023–24 season, however, costs led two teams that qualified for the season to decline participation in the league.[1][2] KJT Haukat qualified after finishing fourth in the 2022–23 Naisten Mestis regular season but the team ceased operations in May 2023, citing a lack of players willing to commit to an increased game schedule and insuficient financial resources.[3] Kiilat Haapajärvi qualified after placing second in the 2023 Naisten Suomi-sarja final (Finnish: Naisten Suomi-sarjan lopputurnaus) but dropped out of the league due to financial concerns and instead remained in the Naisten Suomi-sarja for the 2023–24 season.[2]

Of the eight teams that participated in the 2023–24 season, five were the 'akatemia' teams (lit. 'academy' teams; secondary or developmental teams) of clubs playing in the Naisten Liiga. Only APV, PaRa, and SaiPa – the three teams from clubs without Naisten Liiga teams – declared their willingness to vie for promotion to the Naisten Liiga in the postseason qualification series, meaning no qualifiers would be held if at least one of those teams did not end the season ranked in the top-three of the Naisten Mestis.[4][a]

  1. ^ Under normal circumstances, the bottom-two teams from the Naisten Liiga and top-two teams from the Naisten Mestis would participate in the qualifiers. Due to the dissolution of Lukko ahead of the 2023–24 Naisten Liiga season, only nine teams played and, therefore, only one Naisten Liiga team was available to participate in the 2023 qualification series. As a result, the top-three Naisten Mestis teams were granted the opportunity to participate in the qualifiers.
Team Location Home venue(s) Head coach Captain
APV Alavus Alavus Areena Michael Ojala Silja Särkinen
HIFK Akatemia Helsinki Pirkkolan jäähalli [fi] Bertalan Szolga Nathalie Karlberg
HPK Akatemia Hämeenlinna Hämeenlinnan harjoitushalli Marko Peltoniemi Sanni Nikkilä
Jääliikuntakeskus Hakio
KalPa Akatemia Kuopio Lippumäen jäähalli [fi] Jarno Hakkarainen Tiina Lustig
Kiekko-Espoo Akatemia Espoo Tapiolan harjoitusareena Casimir Öhman Linda Österlund
Kärpät Akatemia Oulu Raksila 2 Kristiina Meriläinen Elisa Pekkala
PaRa Eura Panelian jäähalli Petri Tuokkola Sini Maansalo
SaiPa Lappeenranta Kisapuisto 2 Joona Hänninen Ella Raijas

Teams in previous seasons

The teams that qualified for the Naisten Mestis regular season, listed by overall rank at the end of the regular season.

2017–18[5]

1. TPS
2. Sport
3. JYP
4. RoKi
5. Hermes
6. Red Wings
7. KalPa Ak
8. Puhti

2018–19[6]

1. HIFK
2. RoKi
3. Hermes
4. APV
5. JYP
6. Kärpät Ak

2019–20[7]

1. JYP
2. Kärpät Ak
3. KJT Haukat
4. HIFK AK
5. SaiPa
6. YJK

2020–21[8][9]

1. Kärpät Ak
2. APV
3. PaRa
4. KOOVEE
–. HIFK Ak
–. K-Espoo Ak

2021–22[10]

1. HIFK Ak
2. K-Espoo Ak
3. Kärpät Ak
4. JYP
5. HPK Akatemia
6. KJT Haukat

2022–23[11]

1. HIFK Ak
2. K-Espoo Ak
3. HPK Ak
4. KJT Haukat
5. KalPa Ak
6. APV
7. Kärpät Ak
8. SaiPa

Series champions

The manner in which the Mestis Championship is won has changed many times since the founding of the league in 1985. It has, for example, been awarded to the most successful team in the regular season, the winner of Mestis playoffs (which have repeatedly changed format or not been held), or to the team able to win promotion through the Naisten Liiga qualification/relegation series. The winner of the Naisten Mestis has not been historically guaranteed a place in the Naisten Liiga for the following season.

League winners, 2016–present

Season 1st place, gold medalist(s) First Place 2nd place, silver medalist(s) Second Place 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Third Place
2015–16 Blues/EKS (Espoo) Pelicans 2000 (Lahti) Hermes (Kokkola)
2016–17 Sport (Vaasa) Rovaniemen Kiekko (Rovaniemi) Puhti [fi] (Kuusankoski)
2017–18 TPS (Turku) Sport (Vaasa) JYP (Jyväskylä)
2018–19 JYP (Jyväskylä) Hermes (Kokkola) APV (Alavus)
2019–20 Seasons suspend due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21
2021–22 HIFK Akatemia (Helsinki) Kiekko-Espoo Akatemia (Espoo) Kärpät Akatemia (Oulu)
2022–23 HIFK Akatemia (Helsinki) Kiekko-Espoo Akatemia (Espoo) HPK Akatemia (Hämeenlinna)
2023–24 HIFK Akatemia (Helsinki) Kiekko-Espoo Akatemia (Espoo) KalPa Akatemia (Kuopio)

See also

References

Content in this article is translated from the existing Finnish Wikipedia article at fi:Naisten Mestis; see its history for attribution.

  1. ^ a b c d e Antila, Pirkka (28 April 2022). "Naisten Liigan, Mestiksen ja Suomi-sarjan pelaamistavat vahvistettu kausille 22-23 ja 23-24". Finnish Ice Hockey Association (in Finnish). Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  2. ^ a b Seppä, Lassi (6 July 2023). "Sarjauudistus huolettaa Naisten Mestiksessä − "Liikevaihtomme nousee noin 20 000 euroa eikä tuloja juuri ole"". Jatkoaika (in Finnish). Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  3. ^ Seppä, Lassi (17 May 2023). "KJT Haukkojen naisten toiminta loppuu − "Tapahtumat kuitenkin heijastelevat naisten jääkiekon tilaa Suomessa"". Jatkoaika (in Finnish). Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  4. ^ Seppä, Lassi (5 January 2024). "Karsintamahdollisuus takaisin pöydälle − APV ilmoitti halukkuutensa mitellä naisten liigapaikasta". Jatkoaika (in Finnish). Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  5. ^ "2017-2018 Naisten Mestis, Sarja: Naisten Mestis – Sarjataulukko". Finnish Ice Hockey Association (in Finnish). 18 March 2018. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  6. ^ "2018-2019 Naisten Mestis, Sarja: Naisten Mestis – Sarjataulukko". Finnish Ice Hockey Association (in Finnish). 10 February 2019. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  7. ^ "2019-2020 Naisten Mestis, Sarja: Naisten Mestis – Sarjataulukko". Finnish Ice Hockey Association (in Finnish). 22 March 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  8. ^ Halme, Kai (4 December 2020). "Naisten Mestiksen ja Suomi-sarjan pelaamistavat". Finnish Ice Hockey Association (in Finnish). Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  9. ^ "2020-2021 Naisten Mestis, Sarja: Naisten Mestis – Sarjataulukko". Finnish Ice Hockey Association (in Finnish). 31 May 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  10. ^ "2021-2022 Naisten Mestis, Sarja: Naisten Mestis – Sarjataulukko". Finnish Ice Hockey Association (in Finnish). 13 March 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  11. ^ "2022-2023 Naisten Mestis, Naisten Mestis – Sarjataulukko". Finnish Ice Hockey Association (in Finnish). 12 March 2023. Retrieved 29 February 2024.

External links

  • League information and statistics from Eliteprospects.com and Hockeyarchives.info (in French)
  • v
  • t
  • e
Naisten Liiga
SeasonsCurrent teamsFormer teams
Trophies and awardsOther