The 2011–12 SM-liiga season was the 37th season of the

SM-liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

, the top level of

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, since the league's formation in 1975. The title was won by

JYP Jyväskylä JYP is an ice hockey team playing in the Finnish top division Liiga. They play in Jyväskylä, Finland, at the LähiTapiola Areena. History JYP was founded in 1923. First it was the ice hockey section of the sports club ''Jyväskylän Palloilija ...

who defeated

Pelicans Lahti The Lahti Pelicans are a Finnish professional ice hockey team playing in the Liiga. Founded in 1996, they play in the city of Lahti at Isku Arena. The team is co-owned by (among others) former National Hockey League (NHL) goaltender Pasi Nurminen ...

in the finals. The title was 2nd in team history.

Teams

* 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 Mestis (from fi, Mestaruussarja, meaning 'Championship series') is the second-highest men's ice hockey league in Finland. The league was established by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 2000 to replace the I-divisioona ('First Division'). ...

winner

Sport Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...

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 {{DEFAULTSORT:2011-12 SM-liiga season 1

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

Liiga seasons