The 2018–19 Mestis season is the 19th season of Mestis, the second highest level of ice hockey in Finland after Liiga. KOOVEE was promoted from Suomi-sarja due to Espoo United declaring bankruptcy at the end of last season.
Clubs
Team City Home arena, capacity Founded Head coach Hermes Kokkola Kokkolan jäähalli, 4,200 1953 Janne Tuunanen IPK Iisalmi Kankaan jäähalli, 1,326 1966 Janne Sinkkonen 3.1.2019 Tommi Miettinen Jokipojat Joensuu Mehtimäki Ice Hall, 4,800 1953 Jouni Varis Ketterä Imatra Imatra Spa Areena, 1,200 1957 Maso Lehtonen KeuPa HT Keuruu Keuruun Jäähalli, 1,100 1995 Niko Härkönen K-Vantaa Vantaa Trio Areena, 2,004 1994 Simo Mälkiä 28.1.2019 Reijo Ruotsalainen KOOVEE Tampere Hakametsä 2, 1050 1929 Juha Pajuoja LeKi Lempäälä Masku Areena, 800 1904 Miikka Kuusela Peliitat Heinola Versowood Areena, 2,975 1984 Jani Keinänen 9.2.2019 Vesa Petäjä RoKi Rovaniemi Lappi Areena, 3,500 1979 Santeri Immonen SaPKo Savonlinna Talvisalo ice rink, 2,833 1929 Pasi Räsänen TUTO Hockey 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.
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
Bronze medal game
Finals
Ketterä wins the finals 4-1.
Relegation playoffs The bottom two teams faced the top two teams from Suomi-sarja for a best-of-7 series were the winners got a place in Mestis for the next season. Peliitat and KOOVEE both won their series and thus avoided relegation.
See also 2018–19 Liiga season
References