Mestis

Mestis (from Finnish: 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').

This article is about men's second-tier ice hockey league in Finland. For women's second-tier ice hockey league in Finland, see Naisten Mestis.

Mestis
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2023–24 Mestis season
FormerlyI-Divisioona
SportIce hockey
Founded2000 (2000)
FounderFinnish Ice Hockey Association
Inaugural season2000–01
MottoSuomen viihdyttävintä lätkää (Finland’s most entertaining hockey)
No. of teams13
Country Finland
Most recent
champion(s)		Kiekko-Espoo
(2022–23)
Most titlesJukurit (7)
TV partner(s)C More
Level on pyramidLevel 2
Promotion toLiiga (closed until 2025)
Relegation toSuomi-sarja
Domestic cup(s)Finnish Cup
Related
competitions		Liiga, Suomi-sarja
Official websiteMestis.fi

Mestis is the highest league that can be reached through playing merits alone. Being promoted to Liiga is only possible if a team's Liiga license application is accepted. Mestis, however, is an open league where relegation and promotion are possible with the 3rd league, Suomi-sarja.

Mestis is also the highest league governed by the FIHA.

History

In the years 2000–2008, it was not practically possible for Mestis teams to get promoted to the SM-liiga, which was closed in 2000, but it was possible to drop down to the Suomi-sarja instead. However, KalPa was promoted to the SM-liiga in the spring of 2005, when the number of teams in the league was increased from 13 to 14 teams. For the 2008–2009 season, the SM-liiga qualifiers were brought back for a few seasons, but in the 2013–2014 season, the qualifiers were removed again. After the elimination of the qualifiers, Sport, KooKoo and Jukurit have been promoted to the SM-liiga through the license system.[1]

Mestis got a new team, HK Zemgale/LLU, from Latvia for the 2022–23 season.[1] HK Zemgale had never played in a Finnish league before and was added to Mestis to bring more entertainment and internationalization to Finnish ice hockey.[2]

According to Mestis themselves, they are talking with other international clubs about joining the Mestis league.[2][3]

Clubs
Finnish teams in Mestis
Team City Home arena, capacity Founded Head coach
KOOVEE Tampere Tampere Ice Stadium, 7,300 1929 Finland Miikka Kuusela
Hermes Kokkola Kokkolan jäähalli, 4,200 1953 Finland Tuukka Poikonen
Hokki Kajaani Kajaanin jäähalli, 2,372 1968 Finland Pasi Räsänen
IPK Iisalmi Kankaan jäähalli, - 1966 Finland Niko Härkönen
Jokerit Helsinki Keravan jäähalli, 2,000

Helsinki Ice Hall, 8,200

 1967 Finland Tero Määttä
JoKP Joensuu Mehtimäki Ice Hall, 4,800 1953 Finland Kari Martikainen
Ketterä Imatra Imatra Spa Areena, 1,300 1957 Finland Tuomo Ropo
Kiekko-Espoo Espoo Espoo Metro Areena, 6,900 2018 Finland Tomas Westerlund
Kiekko-Vantaa Vantaa Trio Areena, 3,700 1994 Finland Jani Manninen
KeuPa HT Keuruu Keuruun Jäähalli, 1,100 1995 Finland Sami Ryhänen
FPS Forssa Forssa Ice Hall, 3,000 1931 Finland Asko Rantanen
RoKi Rovaniemi Lappi Areena, 3,500 1979 Finland Maso Lehtonen
TUTO Hockey Turku Rajupaja Areena, 3,000 1929 Finland Hermanni Vidman

Past participants


Mestis timeline
2000–012001–022002–032003–042004–052005–062006–072007–082008–092009–102010–112011–122012–132013–142014–152015–162016–172017–182018–192019–202020–212021–222022–232023-24
K-Vantaa
TuToTUTO Hockey
Jukurit
KooKoo
Sport
FPS
Hermes
Haukat
Ahmat
UJK
DiskosD TeamJYP-Akatemia
JokipojatJoKP
KalPa
HokkiHokki
HCK Salamat
HeKiPeliitat
SaPKo
KOOVEE
LeKi
Titaanit
RoKi
K-Laser
HCK
KeuPa HT
IPK
Espoo United
Ketterä
K-Espoo
HK Zemgale
Jokerit

Winners
Year Champion Silver Bronze Regular Season
Winner
2001 Jukurit TuTo Hermes TuTo
2002 Jukurit KooKoo KalPa Jukurit
2003 Jukurit K-Vantaa KooKoo Jukurit
2004 KalPa Jukurit Hermes Jukurit
2005 KalPa Sport TuTo KalPa
2006 Jukurit Sport TuTo Jukurit
2007 Hokki Jukurit Sport Sport
2008 TuTo Hokki Jukurit TuTo
2009 Sport Jokipojat Hokki Jokipojat
2010 Jokipojat D-Team KooKoo KooKoo
2011 Sport Jukurit D-Team Jukurit
2012 Sport Jokipojat KooKoo Jukurit
2013 Jukurit KooKoo TUTO Hockey Jukurit
2014 KooKoo Jukurit TUTO Hockey TUTO Hockey
2015 Jukurit KooKoo Hokki Jukurit
2016 Jukurit Hokki Jokipojat Jukurit
2017 SaPKo K-Vantaa Espoo-United SaPKo
2018 KeuPa HT TUTO Hockey SaPKo KeuPa HT
2019 Ketterä KeuPa HT TUTO Hockey Hermes
2020 Season did not finish due to the COVID-19 pandemic. No medals were awarded. Ketterä
2021 Ketterä Hermes IPK Kiekko-Espoo
2022 Ketterä Kiekko-Espoo RoKi Ketterä
2023 Kiekko-Espoo Ketterä RoKi Kiekko-Espoo

Medaltable:

team Gold Silver Bronze
Jukurit 7 4 1
Sport 3 2 1
Ketterä 3 0 0
KalPa 2 0 1
KooKoo 1 3 3
TUTO Hockey 1 2 5
Hokki 1 2 2
Jokipojat 1 2 1
KeuPa HT 1 1 0
SaPKo 1 0 1
K-Vantaa 0 2 0
Hermes 0 1 2
JYP-Akatemia 0 1 1
Espoo United 0 0 1
IPK 0 0 1
RoKi 0 0 1

References
  1. "Jääkiekko | Jääkiekon Mestis levittäytyi jo Latviaan, mutta kustannusten kasvu hirvittää seuroja: "Se huolestuttaa"". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). 22 September 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  2. "Latvian mestari HK Zemgale pelaa ensi kaudella Mestistä". mestis.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  3. "Mestis laajenee ulkomaille: latvialainen seura liittyy sarjaan". mtvuutiset.fi (in Finnish). 12 August 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  4. "Hirmujälkeä tehneestä joukkueesta tuli hetkessä SM-liigan 2000-luvun naurunaihe – hekuma vaihtui helvetilliseksi taipaleeksi: "Ei se ollut herkkua kenellekään"". mtvuutiset.fi (in Finnish). 11 December 2021. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  5. Lempinen, Marko (11 April 2014). "Tässä on liiganousija Sportin ensi kauden joukkue – pelaajabudjetti kasvaa dramaattisesti". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  6. "MTV: Mikkelin Jukurit nousee SM-liigaan!". www.iltalehti.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  7. Pärnänen, Antti (30 September 2014). "Nyt se on varmaa: SM-liiga laajenee ja KooKoo nousee". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  8. "Zeltiņš: "Zemgale/LBTU" budžets būtiski mazāks nebūs - Hokeja ziņas" (in Latvian). 19 July 2023. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  9. "Mestiksen otteluohjelma kaudelle 2023–24 julkaistu – Kiekko-Espoo ja Jokerit kohtaavat avausottelussa". mestis.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  10. "Käräjäoikeus asetti Peliitat konkurssiin". Itä-Häme (in Finnish). 10 May 2023. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
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