| 2020–21 SM-liiga | |
| League: | SM-liiga |
| Sport: | Ice hockey |
| Duration: | October 2020 – May 2021 |
| No Of Teams: | 15 |
| Tv: | Telia C More |
| Season: | Regular season |
| Season Champs: | Lukko |
| Season Champ Name: | Best record |
| Second Place: | HIFK |
| Mvp: | Robin Press (Lukko) |
| Mvp Link: | Lasse Oksanen trophy |
| Top Scorer: | Petri Kontiola (HPK) |
| Top Scorer Link: | Veli-Pekka Ketola trophy |
| Playoffs: | Playoffs |
| Playoffs Mvp: | Eetu Koivistoinen (Lukko) |
| Playoffs Mvp Link: | Jari Kurri trophy |
| Finals Champ: | Lukko |
| Finals Runner-Up: | TPS |
| Seasonslist: | List of SM-liiga seasons |
| Seasonslistnames: | SM-liiga |
| Prevseason Link: | 2019–20 SM-liiga season |
| Prevseason Year: | 2019–20 |
| Nextseason Link: | 2021–22 SM-liiga season |
| Nextseason Year: | 2021–22 |
The 2020–21 SM-liiga season was the 46th season of the SM-liiga, the top level of ice hockey in Finland, since the league's formation in 1975. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic all the games had to be played to a very limited audience or no audience at all.[1] Two teams have temporarily let go of their coaches due to financial reasons: JYP and SaiPa.[2] The season was Hakametsä's last full season.
| Team | City | Head coach | Arena | Capacity | Captain | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jere Sallinen | ||||||
| Markus Nenonen | ||||||
| Eemeli Suomi | ||||||
| Jesper Piitulainen | ||||||
| Mikko Viitanen (27.12.2020–) Jussi Tupamäki (21.10.2020–27.12.2020) Pekka Tirkkonen (furloughed 21.10.2020–31.3.2021) | Jani Tuppurainen | |||||
| Tommi Jokinen | ||||||
| Alexander Bonsaksen | ||||||
| Mika Pyörälä | ||||||
| Heikki Liedes | ||||||
| Hannes Björninen | ||||||
| Ville Hämäläinen (8.11.2020–27.3.2021) Tero Lehterä (furloughed 8.11.2020–27.3.2021) | Jarno Koskiranta | |||||
| Erik Riska | ||||||
| Jukka Peltola | ||||||
| Lauri Korpikoski | ||||||
| Niklas Appelgren |
Top six advanced straight to the quarter-finals, while teams between 7th and 10th positions played a wild card round for the final two spots. The SM-liiga is a closed series and thus there is no relegation. Due to several games having been cancelled due to COVID-19 cases in various teams in March 2021, not all teams got an even number of games, therefore SM-liiga decided that the rankings of the regular season will be determined by points per game average.[4]
Rules for classification: 1) Points per game; 2) 3-point wins 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Head-to-head points.[5]
Contrary to the best of three format used in the past seasons, the wild-card round will take place in two games and the aggregate score decides the team which advances.[6] The remaining rounds will be played in the best-of-5 format instead of the typical best-of-7 format[7]
The worse ranked team will play the first game at home. The aggregate score of the two games decides the winner of the round. There will be no over-time or penalty shoot-outs in the first game even if the score is tied. If the aggregate score is tied after the second game, overtime will be played in 20 minute periods until a goal is scored.[7]
|}
Lukko wins the finals 3-1.
| Lukko | ||
| TPS | ||
| HIFK | ||
| 4 | Tappara | |
| 5 | KalPa | |
| 6 | Pelicans | |
| 7 | Kärpät | |
| 8 | Ilves | |
| 9 | KooKoo | |
| 10 | Sport | |
| 11 | HPK | |
| 12 | Ässät | |
| 13 | SaiPa | |
| 14 | Jukurit | |
| 15 | JYP |