The 2012–13 SM-liiga season was the 38th season of the SM-liiga, the top level of

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) 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. In ice hockey, two o ...

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 Bo ...

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

Ässät Pori 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 Cons ...

who defeated

Tappara Tampere Tappara (; Finnish for " Battle axe") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team playing in the Liiga. They play at '' Tampere Deck Arena'' in Tampere, Finland. The team has won 18 Finnish league championships (1959, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1977, ...

in the finals.

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 Ässät, Blues, HIFK, Jokerit, Kärpät, Lukko and TPS, while other had HPK, Ilves, JYP, KalPa, Pelicans, SaiPa and Tappara. 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: Pelicans-Ilves, TPS-Lukko, Ässät-Blues, HIFK-HPK, Tappara-Jokerit, Kärpät-KalPa and SaiPa-JYP. 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 had to play best-of-seven series against Mestis winner Jukurit.

Playoffs

Wild card round (best-of-three)

Kärpät-Lukko 1-2 :Kärpät-Lukko 4-5 :Lukko-Kärpät 2-4 :Kärpät-Lukko 2-3 ( OT) HIFK-SaiPa 2-1 :HIFK-SaiPa 2-3 ( OT) :SaiPa-HIFK 2-3 ( OT) :HIFK-SaiPa 5-2

Quarterfinals (best-of-seven)

Jokerit-Lukko 2-4 :Jokerit-Lukko 3-0 :Lukko-Jokerit 5-2 :Jokerit-Lukko 3-4 ( OT) :Lukko-Jokerit 2-1 :Jokerit-Lukko 5-2 :Lukko-Jokerit 3-1
Tappara-HIFK 4-1 :Tappara-HIFK 3-1 :HIFK-Tappara 1-4 :Tappara-HIFK 3-2 :HIFK-Tappara 3-2 :Tappara-HIFK 3-1
JYP-HPK 4-1 :JYP-HPK 3-1 :HPK-JYP 3-2 :JYP-HPK 4-2 :HPK-JYP 2-3 ( OT) :JYP-HPK 5-1
Ässät-KalPa 4-1 :Ässät-KalPa 2-1 :KalPa-Ässät 0-2 :Ässät-KalPa 5-2 :KalPa-Ässät 5-0 :Ässät-KalPa 3-0

Semifinals (best-of-seven)

Tappara-Lukko 4-0 :Tappara-Lukko 3-2 ( OT) :Lukko-Tappara 3-4 ( OT) :Tappara-Lukko 3-0 :Lukko-Tappara 0-5
JYP-Ässät 1-4 :JYP-Ässät 3-4 ( OT) :Ässät-JYP 2-0 :JYP-Ässät 1-4 :Ässät-JYP 1-2 :JYP-Ässät 0-1

Bronze Medal Game

:JYP-Lukko 2-0

Finals (best-of-seven)

Tappara-Ässät 2-4 :Tappara-Ässät 2-1 :Ässät-Tappara 5-1 :Tappara-Ässät 3-2 :Ässät-Tappara 4-0 :Tappara-Ässät 1-2 ( OT) :Ässät-Tappara 3-2

Relegation (best-of-seven)

Ilves-Jukurit 4-1 :Ilves-Jukurit 2-0 :Jukurit-Ilves 1-3 :Ilves-Jukurit 2-1 ( OT) :Jukurit-Ilves 7-4 :Ilves-Jukurit 4-2

External links

Official site of the SM-liiga
{{DEFAULTSORT:2012-13 SM-liiga season 1 Finnish Liiga seasons