The 2011–12 SM-liiga season was the 37th 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 JYP Jyväskylä who defeated Pelicans Lahti in the finals. The title was 2nd in team history.

Teams Team City Head coach Arena Capacity Captain Pori Karri Kivi Porin jäähalli Ville Uusitalo Blues Espoo Lauri Marjamäki Barona Areena Toni Kähkönen HIFK Helsinki Petri Matikainen Helsingin jäähalli Ville Peltonen HPK Hämeenlinna Timo Lehkonen‡ Patria-areena Marko Tuulola Ilves Tampere Seppo Hiitelä‡ Tampereen jäähalli Martti Järventie Jokerit Helsinki Erkka Westerlund Hartwall Areena Ossi Väänänen JYP Jyrki Aho‡ Jyväskylän jäähalli Juha-Pekka Hytönen KalPa Kuopio Tuomas Tuokkola Niiralan monttu Sami Kapanen Kärpät Oulu Hannu Aravirta Oulun Energia Areena Ilkka Mikkola Lukko Rauma Juha Vuori‡ Äijänsuo Arena Otto Honkaheimo Pelicans Lahti Kai Suikkanen Isku Areena Arttu Luttinen SaiPa Lappeenranta Ari-Pekka Selin Kisapuisto Ville Koho Tappara Tampere Risto Dufva‡ Tampereen jäähalli Pekka Saravo TPS Turku Pekka Virta Turkuhalli 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 Blues, HIFK, Jokerit, JYP, KalPa, Pelicans and SaiPa, while other had HPK, Ilves, Kärpät, Lukko, Tappara, TPS and Ässät.

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: Ilves-Tappara, SaiPa-HPK, TPS-Lukko, Kärpät-Blues, JYP-HIFK, Jokerit-Pelicans and Ässät-KalPa.

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 will play best-of-seven series against Mestis winner Sport.

Team GP W OTW OTL L GF GA +/− P KalPa 60 34 3 7 16 180 139 +41 115 Pelicans 60 30 9 3 18 213 155 +58 111 HIFK 60 33 6 0 21 194 149 +45 111 JYP 60 30 7 4 19 168 122 +46 108 Ässät 60 31 4 5 20 189 150 +39 106 Jokerit 60 24 8 13 15 183 155 +28 101 Kärpät 60 29 4 4 23 164 148 +16 99 Blues 60 18 9 10 23 148 165 −17 82 Lukko 60 21 7 4 28 162 167 −5 81 TPS 60 21 6 3 30 134 180 −46 78 SaiPa 60 18 5 13 24 155 176 −21 77 Tappara 60 20 4 5 31 132 188 −56 73 HPK 60 15 6 5 34 132 201 −69 62 Ilves 60 10 8 10 32 140 199 −59 56 Source: Elite Prospects

Playoffs

Wild card round (best-of-three) Kärpät-TPS 2–0 Kärpät-TPS 4–1 TPS-Kärpät 1–2

Blues-Lukko 2–1 Blues-Lukko 1–0 (OT) Lukko-Blues 2–0 Blues-Lukko 6–3

Quarterfinals (best-of-seven) KalPa-Blues 3–4 KalPa-Blues 3–1 Blues-KalPa 0–1 KalPa-Blues 5–0 Blues-KalPa 3–1 KalPa-Blues 2–5 Blues-KalPa 4–3 (OT) KalPa-Blues 1–4

Blues became first team in SM-liiga history to overcome 0–3 deficit to win the series.

Pelicans-Kärpät 4–3 Pelicans-Kärpät 5–0 Kärpät-Pelicans 4–3 (OT) Pelicans-Kärpät 1–4 Kärpät-Pelicans 4–1 Pelicans-Kärpät 4–2 Kärpät-Pelicans 3–4 (OT) Pelicans-Kärpät 3–2

HIFK-Jokerit 0–4 HIFK-Jokerit 1–3 Jokerit-HIFK 3–2 (OT) HIFK-Jokerit 1–3 Jokerit-HIFK 2–0

JYP-Ässät 4–0 JYP-Ässät 4–1 Ässät-JYP 1–2 JYP-Ässät 4–3 Ässät-JYP 1–4

Semifinals (best-of-seven) Pelicans-Blues 4–1 Pelicans-Blues 5–3 Blues-Pelicans 1–3 Pelicans-Blues 1–2 (OT) Blues-Pelicans 4–6 Pelicans-Blues 2–1

JYP-Jokerit 4–1 JYP-Jokerit 2–1 (OT) Jokerit-JYP 2–3 JYP-Jokerit 3–2 (2OT) Jokerit-JYP 2–1 JYP-Jokerit 3–2 (OT)

Bronze-medal game Jokerit-Blues 4–3 (2OT)

Finals (best-of-seven) Pelicans-JYP 1–4 Pelicans-JYP 2–0 JYP-Pelicans 6–2 Pelicans-JYP 1–4 JYP-Pelicans 5–4 (OT) Pelicans-JYP 1–2 (OT)

Relegation (best-of-seven)

Ilves-Sport 4–1 Ilves-Sport 6–1 Sport-Ilves 1–5 Ilves-Sport 0–2 Sport-Ilves 2–3 (OT) Ilves-Sport 4–0

References