The 2010–11 SM-liiga season was the 36th season of the

SM-liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mest ...

, the top level of

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

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

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 ...

who defeated

Espoo Blues Kiekko-Espoo is a Finnish professional ice hockey club founded in 2018 as a continuation of the Kiekko-Espoo team originally founded in 1984. Kiekko-Espoo men's team plays in the Liiga, where they were promoted for the 2024–25 Liiga season, 20 ...

in the finals. The title was 7th in team history.

Teams

* Head coaches listed with asterisk (*) were mid-season replacements.

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. New addition to schedule was two games where teams could choose the opponents. These were played back-to-back in late 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: TPS-Ilves, Pelicans-KalPa, SaiPa-Tappara, Kärpät-Blues, Jokerit-HIFK, Lukko-Ässät and HPK-JYP.

Playoffs

Wild card round (best-of-three)

HPK – Ilves 0–2 :HPK-Ilves 3–5 :Ilves-HPK 5–2 Kärpät – Blues 1–2 :Kärpät-Blues 2–3 (OT) :Blues-Kärpät 3–5 :Kärpät-Blues 1–2 (OT)

Quarterfinals (best-of-seven)

JYP – Ilves 4–0 :JYP-Ilves 7–3 :Ilves-JYP 1–2 :JYP-Ilves 4–3 :Ilves-JYP 2–3
Ässät – Blues 2–4 :Ässät-Blues 3–4 (OT) :Blues-Ässät 3–0 :Ässät-Blues 1–2 :Blues-Ässät 1–5 :Ässät-Blues 2–0 :Blues-Ässät 3–0
HIFK – Jokerit 4–3 :HIFK-Jokerit 0–1 :Jokerit-HIFK 4–2 :HIFK-Jokerit 2–1 :Jokerit-HIFK 2–3 (OT) :HIFK-Jokerit 1–3 :Jokerit-HIFK 1–2 (OT) :HIFK-Jokerit 5–1
Lukko – KalPa 4–3 :Lukko-KalPa 2–3 :KalPa-Lukko 3–0 :Lukko-KalPa 2–1 :KalPa-Lukko 2–5 :Lukko-KalPa 5–0 :KalPa-Lukko 3–2 (2OT) :Lukko-KalPa 5–1

Semifinals (best-of-seven)

JYP – Blues 1–4 :JYP-Blues 1–3 :Blues-JYP 4–3 :JYP-Blues 4–2 :Blues-JYP 2–0 :JYP-Blues 1–3
HIFK – Lukko 4–1 :HIFK-Lukko 2–3 (3OT) :Lukko-HIFK 1–3 :HIFK-Lukko 5–2 :Lukko-HIFK 0–3 :HIFK-Lukko 7–1

Bronze medal game

JYP-Lukko 2–4

Finals (best-of-seven)

HIFK-Blues 4–0 :HIFK-Blues 3–2 :Blues-HIFK 1–5 :HIFK-Blues 5–3 :Blues-HIFK 2–4 {{DEFAULTSORT:2010-11 SM-liiga season 1 Finnish Liiga seasons