2020–21 Naisten Liiga season

The 2020–21 Naisten Liiga season is the thirty-eighth season of the Naisten Liiga, Finland's elite women's ice hockey league, since the league’s creation in 1982. The season began as scheduled on 5 September 2020, making the Naisten Liiga the first women's national ice hockey league in Europe and, quite likely, in the world to return to play for the 2020–21 season

2020–21 Naisten Liiga season
LeagueNaisten Liiga
SportIce hockey
Duration5 September 2020 – March 2021
Number of games30
Number of teams11 in Preliminary series
6 in Regular season, 6 in Lower division series
TV partner(s)Ruutu+
Regular Season

League business

Number of teams

When the 2019–20 Naisten Liiga season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league qualification series (Finnish: karsintasarja) had not been completed. At the time of cancellation, Lukko Naiset had amassed an unreachable points advantage and secured their place in the Naisten Liiga and APV Naiset had been mathematically relegated to the Naisten Mestis but is was still possible for either RoKi Naiset or TPS Naiset to qualify. Recognizing that it would be unfair to relegate either RoKi or TPS, the Finnish Ice Hockey Association announced that both teams would participate in the 2020–21 Naisten Liiga season, increasing the number of teams in the preliminary round from ten to eleven.[1]

League placement rankings

In an effort to account for expected cancellations of some matches due to COVID-19 safety protocols, the Finnish Ice Hockey Association announced league rankings would be determined by the average points per game of each team rather than the absolute point total traditionally used. For example, a team with two wins in two games played (6 points total, average 3.0) ranks higher in the league table than a team with four wins, one overtime loss, and one regulation loss (13 points total, average 2.17).[2]

Coaching changes
Off–season
Team 2019–20 2020–21 Details
HPK Kiekkonaiset Katja Pasanen Mari Saarinen Pasanen was fired by GM Jorma Hassinen after HPK lost in the 2019–20 Naisten Liiga quarterfinals, despite having what Hassinen believed to be the fourth-best roster in team history. Saarinen was promoted from assistant coach to head coach shortly thereafter.[3] Saarinen retired from playing in 2012 and previously served as head coach of Ilves Naiset during the 2016–17 and 2017–18 seasons.[4]
Tampereen Ilves Naiset Ville Tolvanen Linda Välimäki Leppänen In February 2020, Ilves announced Välimäki Leppänen had signed as head coach of Ilves Naiset for the 2020–21 season. Välimäki Leppänen retired from playing in 2019 and served as director of Ilves' girls' hockey department for several years prior to her appointment as head coach of the women's team.[5]

Teams
Location of teams in the Naisten Liiga
   : Upper division; : Lower division
Team Location Home venue Head coach Captain
Stadin Gimmat
or HIFK Naiset		 Helsinki Helsingin jäähalli Saara Niemi Karoliina Rantamäki
HPK Kiekkonaiset Hämeenlinna Metritriski Areena Mari Saarinen Riikka Noronen
Ilves Naiset Tampere Tesoman jäähalli Linda Leppänen Anna Kilponen
KalPa Naiset Kuopio Olvi Areena Marjo Voutilainen Emma Ritari
Kiekko-Espoo Naiset Espoo Tapiolan harjoitussaree Sami Haapanen Annina Rajahuhta
Kärpät Naiset Oulu Oulun Energia Areena Janne Salmela Suvi Käyhkö
Lukko Naiset Rauma Kivikylän Areena Marko Toivonen Maija Koski
RoKi Naiset Rovaniemi Lappi Areena Tuomas Liitola Jenna Pirttijärvi
Sport Naiset Vaasa Vaasan Sähkö Arena Marko Haapala Paulina Suoniemi
Team Kuortane Kuortane Kuortaneen jäähalli Mira Kuisma Anna-Lotta Räsänen
TPS Naiset Turku Marli Areena Matti Tähkäpää Elina Heikkinen
Team promoted from the Naisten Mestis to the lower division
JYP Naiset Jyväskylä Jyväskylän harjoitusjäähall Joni Aho Zaida Holmström

Preliminary series

The addition of another team necessitated slight modification of the season format introduced for the 2019–20 season. With eleven participating teams, the twenty-game preliminary series (Finnish: alkusarja) was played strictly as a double round-robin without the addition of the two extra Opening Weekend Tournament games typically needed. The preliminaries were scheduled to be played during 5 September to 13 December 2020.[1][6]

The season began as scheduled on 5 September 2020, making the Naisten Liiga the first women's national ice hockey league in Europe – and, quite possibly, in the world – to return to play for the 2020–21 season. The first game of the season saw Ilves Tampere beat TPS Turku 4–3 in overtime at Tesoman jäähalli.

On 1 December 2020, an emergency meeting of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association was held in response to a significant rise in cases and hospitalizations related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland during the preceding weeks. It was ultimately determined that all leagues under the Association’s administration would suspend play from 2 to 31 December 2020, including the Naisten Liiga.[7] The Naisten Liiga was expected to begin the regular season and lower division series in January, as outlined in the original season schedule, though the Finnish Ice Hockey Association expressed a desire to stage the games postponed during the period of suspended activity when play resumed.[8]

Later in December, it was decided that Naisten Liiga teams would not attempt to play the games missed during the pause and would instead proceed directly to the regular season. With this determination, 29 November 2020 retroactively became the last day of the preliminary series, as it was the last day in which Naisten Liiga games were contested before the suspension.

Standings

Kiekko-Espoo and KalPa, the two teams from the cancelled 2020 Aurora Borealis Cup final, continued to dominate the league in the preliminaries, ranking first and second at the conclusion of the series. Less expected were the third and fourth ranked teams, HIFK and TPS, which had both played in the lower division during the previous season and TPS had very nearly been eliminated in the 2020 qualifiers. Both teams were bolstered in the 2020–21 season by an influx of international talent.

Pos Team Pld W OTW OTL L GF GA GD Pts Placement
1 Kiekko-Espoo 18 15 0 0 3 88 24 +64 45 Regular season
2 KalPa 18 14 1 0 3 94 34 +60 44
3 HIFK 19 11 4 0 4 77 42 +35 41
4 TPS 18 10 1 2 5 75 55 +20 34
5 Ilves 19 9 2 3 5 60 42 +18 34
6 HPK 19 10 1 2 6 62 48 +14 34
7 Team Kuortane 17 7 0 1 9 50 52 −2 22 Lower division
8 Kärpät 19 7 0 2 10 65 56 +9 23
9 RoKi 19 6 1 0 12 34 82 −48 20
10 Lukko 17 1 0 0 16 26 108 −82 3
11 Sport 17 0 0 0 17 16 104 −88 0
Updated to match(es) played on 29 November 2020. Source: Finnish Ice Hockey Association[9]

Official ranking

Statistics

Scoring leaders

The following players led the league in points at the conclusion of the preliminaries on 29 November 2020.[10]

Player Team GP G A Pts PIM
1 Elisa Holopainen KalPa 18 32 22 54 4
2 Estelle Duvin TPS 18 18 22 40 51
3 Emmanuelle Passard HIFK 19 15 20 35 4
4 Matilda Nilsson KalPa 15 11 20 31 6
5 Nelli Laitinen K-Espoo 16 11 19 30 10
6 Jenna Suokko Ilves 19 17 11 28 20
7 Riikka Noronen HPK 19 9 18 27 6
8 Maija Otamo TPS 17 15 11 26 6
9 Clara Rozier HIFK 19 10 15 25 22
10 Annina Rajahuhta K-Espoo 17 12 12 24 16
11 Michaela Pejzlová HIFK 14 10 14 24 0

Leading goaltenders

The following goaltenders lead the league in save percentage at the conclusion of the preliminaries on 29 November 2020, while starting at least one third of matches.[11]

Player Team GP TOI W L SA GA SO SV% GA60
1 Minja Drufva K-Espoo 6 317:15 4 2 108 5 3 .956 0.95
2 Anni Keisala Ilves 14 849:58 8 4 450 27 2 .943 1.91
3 Tiina Ranne KalPa 9 543:33 7 1 226 16 2 .934 1.77
4 Salla Sivula HPK 8 480:59 5 3 245 18 0 .932 2.25
5 Aino Laitinen Kuortane 10 568:11 5 4 368 29 1 .927 3.06
6 Susanna Airaksinen KalPa 7 420:00 5 2 172 14 2 .925 2.00
7 Emilia Kyrkkö Kuortane 8 4500:49 2 6 271 23 1 .922 3.06
8 Olivia Last RoKi 8 408:24 4 4 253 22 0 .920 3.23
9 Iina Kuusela HIFK 10 608:46 7 3 302 27 1 .918 2.66
10 Johanna Oksman Kärpät 12 721:12 4 8 355 32 1 .917 2.66
10 Meeri Räisänen HPK 8 484:45 3 4 244 22 0 .917 2.72

Regular season

The ten-game Naisten Liiga regular season, also called the upper division series (Finnish: ylempi jatkosarja), is played by the six top-ranked teams from the preliminary series.

Following the December stoppage, play resumed on 8 January 2021. The decision was made to begin the regular season (upper and lower divisional series) rather than attempt to makeup the games missed during the pause, resulting in teams with seventeen to nineteen games played at the conclusion of the preliminaries. As the league had already adopted the use of points per game for league rankings, the impact of dropping the missed games on the remainder of the season was negligible.

Standings
Pos Team Pld W OTW OTL L GF GA GD Pts Postseason placement
1 Kiekko-Espoo 22 18 1 0 3 105 32 +73 56 Playoff quarterfinals
2 KalPa 22 16 1 0 5 112 46 +66 50
3 HIFK 24 14 4 1 5 96 52 +44 51
4 Ilves 24 11 3 4 6 74 54 +20 43
5 HPK 22 10 2 3 7 69 62 +7 37
6 TPS 22 10 1 2 9 79 78 +1 34
Updated to match(es) played on 24 January 2020. Source: Leijonat

Official ranking

Pos Team PpG
1 K-Espoo 2.55
2 KalPa 2.27
3 HIFK 2.13
4 Ilves 1.79
5 TPS 1.61
6 HPK 1.55

Statistics

Scoring leaders

The following players led the league in points at the conclusion of games played on 24 January 2021.[12]

Player Team GP G A Pts PIM
1 Michaela Pejzlová HIFK 5 5 5 10 0
2 Karoliina Rantamäki HIFK 5 3 7 10 0
3 Johanna Juutilainen KalPa 4 3 6 9 0
4 Matilda Nilsson KalPa 4 4 4 8 0
5 Emilia Varpula Ilves 5 3 5 8 0
6 Emma Nuutinen K-Espoo 4 3 4 7 2
7 Elisa Holopainen KalPa 4 3 3 6 4
8 Miressa Mäkelä HIFK 5 2 4 6 0
9 Tinja Koljonen KalPa 4 1 5 6 0
10 Helen Puputti Ilves 5 3 2 5 4
11 Emmi Leinonen K-Espoo 4 2 3 5 0

Leading goaltenders

The following goaltenders lead the league in save percentage at the conclusion of games played on 24 January 2021, while starting at least one third of matches.[13]

Player Team GP TOI W L SA GA SO SV% GA60
1 Iina Kuusela HIFK 3 179:25 2 1 77 4 1 .951 1.34
2 Anni Keisala Ilves 4 243:38 2 1 151 9 0 .944 2.22
3 Salla Sivula HPK 2 125:00 0 1 97 6 0 .942 2.88
4 Meeri Räisänen HPK 2 125:00 0 1 107 7 0 .939 3.36
5 Tiia Pajarinen K-Espoo 4 245:00 3 0 85 8 1 .914 1.96
6 Isabella Laiho TPS 4 213:40 0 2 136 13 0 .913 3.65

Lower division series

The lower division series (Finnish: alempi jatkosarja) was modified to be played by the five lowest-ranked teams from the preliminary series, rather than the standard four, and the top team from the cross-qualifiers (Finnish: ristiinkarsinta) of the Naisten Mestis, rather than the top-two from the cross-qualifiers, to account for the additional Naisten Liiga team. The series was originally scheduled to be played during 16 January to 21 February 2021.[1]

Standings
Pos Team Pld W OTW OTL L GF GA GD Pts Postseason placement
1 RoKi 5 4 0 1 0 23 11 +12 13 Playoff quarterfinals
2 Kärpät 5 4 0 0 1 24 8 +16 12
3 Team Kuortane 6 4 1 0 1 21 11 +10 14 Qualifiers
4 Sport 5 1 0 0 4 15 20 −5 3
5 Lukko 5 1 0 0 4 4 19 −15 3
6 JYP 6 1 0 0 5 13 31 −18 3
Updated to match(es) played on 24 January 2021. Source: Leijonat

Official ranking

Pos Team PpG
1 RoKi 2.60
2 Kärpät 2.40
3 Kuortane 2.33
4 Sport 0.60
5 Lukko 0.60
6 JYP 0.50

Statistics

Scoring leaders

The following players led the lower division in points at the conclusion of games played on 24 January 2021.[14]

Player Team GP G A Pts PIM
1 Sofianna Sundelin Kuortane 6 5 6 11 0
2 Jenna Kaila Kuortane 6 4 7 11 2
3 Jenna Pirttijärvi RoKi 5 5 5 10 0
4 Kiira Yrjänen Kuortane 6 7 2 9 14
5 Anna-Kaisa Antti-Roiko Kärpät 5 3 6 9 4
6 Tilli Keränen Kärpät 5 5 3 8 0
7 Alisa Makkonen RoKi 5 3 5 8 4
8 Sanni Kontiosalo RoKi 5 0 8 8 0
9 Moona Keskisarja RoKi 5 5 2 7 2
10 Susanna Viitala Sport 5 4 3 7 2
11 Zaida Holmström JYP 6 1 6 7 4
12 Kiia Nousiainen Kärpät 3 5 1 6 0

Leading goaltenders

The following goaltenders lead the league in save percentage at the conclusion of games played on 24 January 2021, while starting at least one third of matches.[15]

Player Team GP TOI W L SA GA SO SV% GA60
1 Johanna Oksman Kärpät 2 120:00 2 0 45 2 1 .957 1.00
2 Aino Laitinen Kuortane 2 120:00 2 0 41 2 1 .953 1.00
3 Emilia Kyrkkö Kuortane 3 178:33 1 1 75 6 0 .926 2.02
4 Janita Haapasaari RoKi 5 301:28 4 1 127 11 0 .920 2.19
5 Katriina Saarenmaa Lukko 3 160:00 0 2 98 11 0 .899 4.13
6 Johanna Niemi Lukko 3 138:49 1 2 71 8 0 .899 3.46

Awards and honours

Player of the Month

Milestones
  • On 19 September 2020, HPK forward and captain Riikka Noronen played her 600th game in the Naisten Liiga, the first player in league history to reach the milestone.[16]
  • On 17 January 2021, Ilves forward Emilia Varpula and KalPa defenceman Eveliina Nurmi played their 200th games in the Naisten Liiga.

References
  1. "Sarjatoiminta ja kurinpito - Sarjakaaviot - Naisten Liiga (20-21)". finhockey.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  2. Malmberg, Henna (23 September 2020). "Sijoitukset sarjataulukoissa – Määräävä tekijä kaudella 2020-21 on pistekeskiarvo". finhockey.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  3. Savolainen, Samuel (15 March 2020). "HPK-kiekkonaisten päävalmentaja vaihtuu – "Odotukset ja toiminta eivät kohdanneet"". Hämeen Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  4. Laakso, Mika (17 April 2020). "HPK:n päävalmentaja luottavaisin mielin tilanteesta huolimatta − "Haasteellinen kesä voi olla joko uhka tai mahdollisuus"". Jatkoaika (in Finnish). Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  5. Teiskonlahti, Kirsi (20 February 2020). "Ilves-naisten tuleva päävalmentaja Linda Välimäki odottaa naisten murtautuvan myös poikajoukkueiden valmennukseen: "Se olisi ihan tervettä"". Yle Urheilu (in Finnish). Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  6. "Naisten Sarjajärjestelmät 20-21" (PDF). Dropbox (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. May 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  7. "Jääkiekkoliiton alaisten sarjojen syyskausi keskeytetään 2.12. alkaen". finhockey.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. 1 December 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  8. Arkko, Simo (1 December 2020). "Jääkiekkoliitolta ratkaisu: Mestis ja Naisten Liiga keskeytetään". Yle (in Finnish). Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  9. "2020–21 Naisten Liiga, alkusarja: Sarjataulukko". tilastopalvelu.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  10. "2020–21 Naisten Liiga, alkusarja – Pistepörssi". tilastopalvelu.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. 29 November 2020. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  11. "2020–21 Naisten Liiga, alkusarja – Maalivahtitilastot". tilastopalvelu.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. 29 November 2020. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  12. "2020–21 Naisten Liiga – Pelaajatilastot". tilastopalvelu.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. 24 January 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  13. "2020–21 Naisten Liiga – Maalivahtitilastot". tilastopalvelu.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. 24 January 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  14. "2020–21 Naisten Liiga, alempi jatkosarja – Pelaajatilastot". tilastopalvelu.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. 24 January 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  15. "2020–21 Naisten Liiga, alempi jatkosarja – Maalivahtitilastot". tilastopalvelu.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. 24 January 2020. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  16. Lainesalo, Joonas (26 September 2020). "Yli 600 ottelun Riikka Noronen jatkaa ennätysten tekemistä: "Osaan arvostaa sitä, että olen jaksanut pelata näinkin kauan"". Hämeen Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 16 January 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.