Naisten Mestis

Naisten Mestis (Women's Mestis; from Mestaruussarja, "Championship series") is the second-highest league in Finnish women’s ice hockey. The league was founded as Naisten I-divisioona (Women’s First Division) in 1985 by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association when the number of teams playing in the Naisten SM-sarja (now Naisten Liiga) was limited. It was renamed Naisten Mestis prior to the 2012-13 season.

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

Naisten Mestis
Upcoming season or competition:
2020–21 Mestis Season
FormerlyNaisten I-divisioona
SportIce hockey
Founded1985
FounderFinnish Ice Hockey Association
Inaugural seasonas Naisten I-divisoona, 1985–86
as Naisten Mestis, 2012–13
AdministratorKai Halme
No. of teams18 in Qualifiers
6 in Regular Season
CountryFinland
Most recent
champion(s)		HIFK
(2019)
TV partner(s)Ruutu
FanSeat
Promotion toNaisten Liiga
Relegation toNaisten Suomi-sarja
Official websiteleijonat.fi

Series format

The Mestis season format has changed many times since the founding of the league in 1985. The current format was introduced for the 2019–20 season.

Qualifiers

With the exception of the Naisten SM-liiga teams, all club representative teams start the season in the Mestis Qualifiers (Finnish: Karsinta). Each team is grouped into a division (Finnish: lohko) of five to eight teams; the number of divisions is determined by the total number of teams competing and each division is loosely defined by geographic location, with proximate teams being grouped. Each team plays a total of fifteen or sixteen matches within their division. The points earned in the games determine the team’s ranking within their division; victories earn three points, overtime victories earn two points, and overtime losses earn one point. Teams that rank forth or lower in each division at the end of the qualifiers do not qualify to play in the Mestis and continue the season in the Naisten Suomi-sarja. The qualifying round runs from the beginning of the season in September to late November or early December.

Cross qualifiers

The team with the highest point total from each division of the qualifiers moves on the cross qualifying round (Finnish: ristiinkarsinta). If there are an odd number of divisions, the team with the highest point total of all remaining teams also moves on. The cross qualifiers are a round-robin tournament, each team faces all other participating teams once. The two teams earning the highest point totals at the end of the tournament continue their seasons in the Lower Division (Finnish: Alempi jatkosarja) of the Naisten Liiga and have the opportunity to gain promotion to the Naisten Liiga for the following season. The teams ranked third and lower in the cross qualifiers continue the season in the Naisten Mestis regular season. The cross qualifying round is played in late November and/or early December.

Regular season

The teams ranked third and lower in the cross qualifiers and the teams that finished second or third in each division of the qualifiers fill the ranks of the Mestis regular season. If the number of divisions is odd, the third ranked team from the qualifiers with smallest point total does not qualify and moves to the Naisten Suomi-sarja so that an even number of teams is maintained in the Mestis. Each team in the regular season plays an equal number of games against each of the other teams. The regular season runs from January to March.

Teams participating in the 2019–2020 season

Qualifiers

Regular season
Team Team full name Club name Location Home venue
HIFK Ak HIFK Akatemia HIFK (Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna i Helsingfors) Ishockey rf Helsinki Helsingin jäähalli
JYP JYP Jyväskylä Naiset JYP (Jyväskylän Palloilijat) Juniorit ry Jyväskylä Jyväskylän harjoitusjäähalli
KJT Haukat KJT Haukat Naiset KJT (Keski-Uudenmaan Juniorikiekkoilun Tuki) Hockey ry Kerava Karavan jäähalli
Kärpät Akatemia Oulun Kärpät Naiset Akatemia Oulun Kärpät 46 ry Oulu Oulun Energia Areena
SaiPa SaiPa Naiset Saimaan Pallo ry Lappeenranta UK-areena
YJK YJK Naiset Ylivieskan Jääkarhut ry Ylivieska Kalajokilaakso Areena

[4]

Series champions

The manner in which the Mestis Championship is won has changed many times since the founding of the league in 1985. For example, it has been awarded to the most successful team in the regular season, the winner of Mestis playoffs (which have also repeatedly changed format), or to the team able to win promotion through the Naisten Liiga qualification/relegation series. The winner of the Naisten Mestis has not been historically guaranteed a place in the Naisten Liiga for the following season.

gollark: Ah, that's the SPUDNET linkup. You should just be able to ignore that, probably?
gollark: You can ++remind yourself.
gollark: Although you could just run it on a command computer.
gollark: Look, if I could do that, I would have taken over AT LEAST three modded servers.
gollark: Also,t here's no code for blowing stuff up, *or* certain dates.

See also

References

Content in this edit is translated from the existing Finnish Wikipedia article at fi:Naisten Mestis; see its history for attribution.

  1. "Naisten Mestis karsinta, lohko 1". tilastopalvelu.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  2. "Naisten Mestis karsinta, lohko 2". tilastopalvelu.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  3. "Naisten Mestis karsinta, lohko 3". tilastopalvelu.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  4. "2019-2020 Naisten Mestis Sarjainfo". tilastopalvelu.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.