The 1982–83 Naisten SM-sarja season was the first season of the Naisten SM-sarja, the premier league of women's ice hockey in Finland. The inaugural Finnish Champions in women's ice hockey were HJK Helsinki, winners of the 1983 Naisten SM-sarja final tournament. Finnish Championship silver was won by

Ilves Tampere Ilves (; Finnish for " Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Tampere Deck Arena. The colors of Ilves, green, yellow, and black, were taken from what was then the coat of arms of the cit ...

and bronze by EVU Vantaa.

Season format

The ten teams were divided into two groups of five, called Lohko A () and Lohko B (). The groups were closed in the regular season and played as double round-robins. Every team played against the other four teams in their group twice for a total of eight games. Two points were awarded for a win and one point for a tie. The top two teams from the groups qualified for the final tournament.

Teams

Lohko A comprised the four teams located outside of the Uusimaa region – Ilves in Tampere, SaiPa in Lappeenranta, Tiikerit in Hämeenlinna, and

Ässät Ässät or Ässä may refer to: * HC Ässät Pori Oy, Finnish sports club ** Porin Ässät (men's ice hockey) ** Porin Ässät (women's ice hockey) ** Porin Ässät (men's football) ** PATA (esports) *, Finnish band from Oulu *S Group, Finnish Con ...

Pori ) , website www.pori.fi Pori (; sv, Björneborg ) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäki River, west of Tampere, north of Turku and north-w ...

– and the northern-most team in Uusimaa, Haukat in Järvenpää, The five teams of Lohko B were situated across four municipalities of the

Greater Helsinki Greater Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin seutu, Suur-Helsinki, Swedish: ''Helsingforsregionen'', ''Storhelsingfors'') is the metropolitan area surrounding Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. It includes the smaller Capital Region (''Pääkaupunkiseutu' ...

metropolitan area: Jäähonka in Espoo,

Shakers The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, are a Millenarianism, millenarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian sect founded in England and then organized in the Unit ...

Kerava Kerava (; sv, Kervo) is a town and municipality within the Uusimaa region of Finland. The municipalities of Vantaa, Sipoo and Tuusula are adjacent to Kerava, which is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The town has a population of () an ...

, Etelä-Vantaan Urheilijat (EVU) in Vantaa, and both

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK ) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

and

Helsingin Jääkiekkoklubi Helsingin Jääkiekkoklubi () or HJK for short is an ice hockey club located in Helsinki, Finland. The team was formed in 1928 but it became an independent club in 1972 when the ice hockey departmend of Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi was disestablishe ...

(HJK) in Helsinki. Source:

Regular season

Lohko A

Ilves swept all eight games to claim first place in Lohko A with 16 points. In an unexpected twist, Tiikerit and Ässät were tied in second place at the end of the regular season with ten points, identical win-loss records, and a

goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

of exactly +22 each. As only two teams were able to progress to the final tournament, Tiikerit and Ässät played a

sudden death Sudden Death or Sudden death may refer to: Medical * Cardiac arrest, also known as sudden cardiac death, natural death from cardiac causes * Sudden cardiac death of athletes * Sudden infant death syndrome * Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy * ...

match to qualify for the final tournament, which Tikkerit won 7–6. Both SaiPa and Haukat found no success against the top three teams in Lohko A, splitting their two-game regular season series to win one game each.

Game record

The largest goal difference recorded in a single game during the 1982–83 season was amassed by Ilves in their match against Haukat in Tampere, in which Ilves scored 28 goals in a shutout. Ilves also recorded the second largest single-game goal difference in their match against SaiPa in Lappeenranta, scoring 23 goals in a shutout.

Player statistics

Anne Bäckman of Ässät was the top regular season scorer of Lohko A and the league overall, tallying an astounding 42 points in 7 games at a blistering clip of 6 points per game. Her league-leading 33 goals accounted for over half of the 62 goals scored for Ässät and were 25 goals ahead of the next highest Ässät goal-scorer. With the addition of her 9 assists, she was involved in two-thirds of all goals scored for Ässät. Jaana Rautavuoma of Ilves finished the season ranked second in Lohko A and the league overall with 29 goals and league-leading 13 assists for 42 points in 8 games. As would be expected for the team that swept the season, Ilves dominated the scoring table with six players ranked in the top ten. Ässät and Tiikerit were represented in the top ten by two players each. Source:

Lohko B

EVU were the top team of Lohko B, winning seven of eight games to finish the regular season with 14 points. HJK placed second with 11 points from five wins and one tied game. In general, the teams of Lohko B exhibited greater parity than those of Lohko A; no team in Lohko B achieved a sweep and the goal difference for the top four teams spanned just 28 goals, compared to a 97 goal span across the top three teams of Lohko A. The exception were the Shakers, who did not win a single game in the season and amassed a goal differential of -124, the worst in the league.

Game record

The largest goal differential amassed in a single Lohko B game was amassed by HJK in their home game against the Shakers, in which HJK recorded 18 goals in a shutout.

Player statistics

Jaana Ikonen of Jäähonka was the top point scorer in Lohko B, logging 12 goals and 10 assists for 22 points in 8 games. Sirkka-Liisa Pesonen of HIFK led Lohko B in goals, netting 15 goals in 8 games. Reflecting the greater parity of the group, four of five teams in Lohko B were represented in the top ten scoring chart. With only two goals recorded on the season – scored by Taina Kiljunen and Raija Kallio – the Shakers were the only team not represented in the scoring top ten. Source:

Final tournament

The Finnish Championship final tournament was played during 12 and 13 March 1983 in Tampere.

Game record

Player statistics

Source:

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1982-83 Naisten SM-sarja season Naisten Liiga (ice hockey) seasons Naisten SM-sarja Naisten SM-sarja