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Mestis (from Finnish: Mestaruussarja, meaning 'Championship series', stylized as MEST1S) 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').
Current season, competition or edition: 2024–25 Mestis season | |
 | |
| Formerly | I-Divisioona |
|---|---|
| Sport | Ice hockey |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Founder | Finnish Ice Hockey Association |
| First season | 2000–01 |
| Motto | Suomen viihdyttävintä lätkää (Finland’s most entertaining hockey) |
| No. of teams | 10 |
| Country |  Finland |
| Most recent champion(s) | IPK (2023–24) |
| Most titles | Jukurit (7) |
| TV partner(s) | C More |
| Level on pyramid | Level 2 |
| Promotion to | SM-liiga |
| Relegation to | Suomi-sarja |
| Domestic cup(s) | Finnish Cup |
| Related competitions | Naisten Mestis |
| Official website | Mestis.fi |
Being promoted to SM-liiga is possible if a Mestis team beats a SM-liiga club in the qualification series and matches all the criteria set by the SM-liiga. 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
editIn 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] The promotion and relegation between the SM-liiga was brought back for the 2024–25 season.
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
edit
The team names are usually the traditional name of the club. All clubs are commonly known by the name of their team. Oy and Ab are the abbreviations for limited company in Finnish and Swedish respectively.
| Team name | Club's registered name | Location | Home venue,
capacity |
Titles Mestis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hermes | Kokkolan Hermes Oy |  Kokkola
|
Kokkola Ice Hall,
4,200 |
0 |
| Hokki | Hokki Kainuu Oy |  Kajaani
|
Kajaani Ice Hall,
2,372 |
1 |
| IPK | IPK Hockey Oy |  Iisalmi
|
Kankaan jäähalli,
1,358 |
1 |
| Jokerit | Jokerit Helsinki Oy |  Helsinki
|
Helsinki Ice Hall,
8,200 |
0 |
| JoKP | Joensuun Kiekko-Pojat Oy |  Joensuu
|
Turula Engineering Areena
700 |
0 |
| Ketterä | Imatran Ketterä Oy |  Imatra
|
OmaSp Areena,
1,200 |
3 |
| KeuPa HT | KeuPa Hockey Oy |  Keuruu
|
Keuruu Ice Hall,
1,100 |
1 |
| Kiekko-Vantaa | Kiekko-Vantaa Hockey Oy |  Vantaa
|
Tikkurila Ice Hall,
2,004 |
0 |
| RoKi | RoKi Hockey Oy |  Rovaniemi
|
Lappi Areena,
3,500 |
0 |
| TUTO Hockey | TUTO Hockey Oy |  Turku
|
Kupittaa multipurpose hall,
3,000 |
1 |
Past participants
edit
- Jää-Kotkat, relegated to the Suomi-sarja in 2003.
- Hyvinkään Ahmat, relegated to the Suomi-sarja in 2004.
- KalPa, promoted to the SM-liiga in 2005.[4]
- Haukat, resigned in 2006.
- HC Salamat relegated to the Suomi-sarja in 2008.
- Kotkan Titaanit relegated to the Suomi-sarja in 2009.
- Kiekko-Laser went bankrupt in 2011.
- Vaasan Sport, promoted to the SM-liiga in 2014.[5]
- HC Keski-Uusimaa was abandoned serial place in 2014.
- KooKoo, promoted to the SM-liiga in 2015.[6]
- Jukurit, promoted to the SM-liiga in 2016.[7]
- JYP-Akatemia, relegated to the Suomi-sarja and folded in 2017.
- Espoo United, went bankrupt in 2018.
- LeKi, did not receive a license in 2019.
- SaPKo, went bankrupt in 2022.
- HK Zemgale/LBTU, will not play in Mestis for the season 2023-24.[8][9]
- Peliitat, went bankrupt in 2023 and did not receive a license to Mestis[10]
- FPS, relegated to the Suomi-sarja in 2024.
- Kiekko-Espoo, promoted to the SM-liiga in 2024.
- KOOVEE, went bankrupt in 2024.
Mestis timeline
edit| 2000–01 | 2001–02 | 2002–03 | 2003–04 | 2004–05 | 2005–06 | 2006–07 | 2007–08 | 2008–09 | 2009–10 | 2010–11 | 2011–12 | 2012–13 | 2013–14 | 2014–15 | 2015–16 | 2016–17 | 2017–18 | 2018–19 | 2019–20 | 2020–21 | 2021–22 | 2022–23 | 2023-24 |
| K-Vantaa | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| TuTo | TUTO Hockey | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jukurit | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| KooKoo | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| FPS | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hermes | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Haukat | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ahmat | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| UJK | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Diskos | D Team | JYP-Akatemia | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jokipojat | JoKP | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| KalPa | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hokki | Hokki | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| HCK Salamat | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| HeKi | Peliitat | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| SaPKo | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| KOOVEE | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| LeKi | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Titaanit | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| RoKi | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| K-Laser | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| HCK | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| KeuPa HT | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| IPK | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Espoo United | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ketterä | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| K-Espoo | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| HK Zemgale | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jokerit | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Winners
edit| 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 was not finished 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 |
| 2024 | IPK | Ketterä | Kiekko-Espoo | IPK |
Medal table:
| team | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jukurit | 7 | 4 | 1 |
| Sport | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Ketterä | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| KalPa | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| KooKoo | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| TUTO Hockey | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Hokki | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Jokipojat | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| K-Espoo | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| KeuPa HT | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| IPK | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| SaPKo | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| K-Vantaa | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Hermes | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| JYP-Akatemia | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| RoKi | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Espoo United | 0 | 0 | 1 |
References
edit- ^ a b "Jääkiekko | Jääkiekon Mestis levittäytyi jo Latviaan, mutta kustannusten kasvu hirvittää seuroja: "Se huolestuttaa"". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). 22 September 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ a b "Latvian mestari HK Zemgale pelaa ensi kaudella Mestistä". mestis.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ "Mestis laajenee ulkomaille: latvialainen seura liittyy sarjaan". mtvuutiset.fi (in Finnish). 12 August 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ "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.
- ^ Lempinen, Marko (11 April 2014). "Tässä on liiganousija Sportin ensi kauden joukkue – pelaajabudjetti kasvaa dramaattisesti". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ "MTV: Mikkelin Jukurit nousee SM-liigaan!". www.iltalehti.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ Pärnänen, Antti (30 September 2014). "Nyt se on varmaa: SM-liiga laajenee ja KooKoo nousee". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 8 January 2023.
- ^ "Zeltiņš: "Zemgale/LBTU" budžets būtiski mazāks nebūs - Hokeja ziņas" (in Latvian). 19 July 2023. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
- ^ "Mestiksen otteluohjelma kaudelle 2023–24 julkaistu – Kiekko-Espoo ja Jokerit kohtaavat avausottelussa". mestis.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 26 July 2023.
- ^ "Käräjäoikeus asetti Peliitat konkurssiin". Itä-Häme (in Finnish). 10 May 2023. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
External links
edit- Official website (in Finnish)