2011–12 SM-liiga season

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{{Infobox sports season

| title = 2011–12 SM-liiga

| color =

| color text =

| league = SM-liiga

| sport = Ice hockey

| duration = September 2011 – April 2012

| no_of_teams = 14

| attendance =

| TV = UrhoTV, Nelonen

| season = Regular season

| season_champs = KalPa

| season_champ_name = Best record

| second_place = Pelicans

| MVP = Tomáš Záborský

| MVP_link = Lasse Oksanen trophy

| top_scorer = Ryan Lasch

| top_scorer_link = Veli-Pekka Ketola trophy

| promote =

| promoted_from =

| relegate =

| relegate_to =

| playoffs = Playoffs

| playoffs_link =

| playoffs_MVP = Jani Tuppurainen

| playoffs_MVP_link = Jari Kurri trophy

| finals = Finals

| finals_link =

| finals_champ = JYP

| finals_runner-up = Pelicans

| finals_MVP =

| finals_MVP_link =

| seasonslist = List of SM-liiga seasons

| seasonslistnames = SM-liiga

| prevseason_link = 2010–11 SM-liiga season

| prevseason_year = 2010–11

| nextseason_link = 2012–13 SM-liiga season

| nextseason_year = 2012–13

}}

The 2011–12 SM-liiga season was the 37th season of the SM-liiga, the top level of ice hockey in Finland, since the league's formation in 1975. The title was won by JYP Jyväskylä who defeated Pelicans Lahti in the finals. The title was 2nd in team history.

Teams

Team	City	Head coach	Arena	Capacity	Captain
class="wikitable sortable"
{{Sortname	Ässät\|HC Ässät Pori Oy\|Assat}}	Pori	Karri Kivi	Porin jäähalli	{{Nts\|6481}}	Ville Uusitalo
Blues	Espoo	Lauri Marjamäki	Barona Areena	{{Nts\|6798}}	Toni Kähkönen
HIFK	Helsinki	Petri Matikainen	Helsingin jäähalli	{{Nts\|8200}}	Ville Peltonen
HPK	Hämeenlinna	Timo Lehkonen‡	Patria-areena	{{Nts\|5360}}	Marko Tuulola
Ilves	Tampere	Seppo Hiitelä‡	Tampereen jäähalli	{{Nts\|7600}}	Martti Järventie
Jokerit	Helsinki	Erkka Westerlund	Hartwall Areena	{{Nts\|13506}}	Ossi Väänänen
JYP	{{Sortname	Jyväskylä	Jyvaskyla}}	Jyrki Aho‡	Jyväskylän jäähalli	{{Nts\|4618}}	Juha-Pekka Hytönen
KalPa	Kuopio	Tuomas Tuokkola	Niiralan monttu	{{Nts\|5224}}	Sami Kapanen
Kärpät	Oulu	Hannu Aravirta	Oulun Energia Areena	{{Nts\|6768}}	Ilkka Mikkola
Lukko	Rauma	Juha Vuori‡	Äijänsuo Arena	{{Nts\|5400}}	Otto Honkaheimo
Pelicans	Lahti	Kai Suikkanen	Isku Areena	{{Nts\|5530}}	Arttu Luttinen
SaiPa	Lappeenranta	Ari-Pekka Selin	Kisapuisto	{{Nts\|4825}}	Ville Koho
Tappara	Tampere	Risto Dufva‡	Tampereen jäähalli	{{Nts\|7600}}	Pekka Saravo
TPS	Turku	Pekka Virta	Turkuhalli	{{Nts\|11820}}	Ville Vahalahti

Head coaches marked with ‡ took their jobs mid-season.

Regular season

File:Kisapuisto 2012.jpg

Each team played four times against every other team (twice home and twice away), getting to 52 games. Additionally, the teams were divided to two groups, where teams would play one extra game. One group included Blues, HIFK, Jokerit, JYP, KalPa, Pelicans and SaiPa, while other had HPK, Ilves, Kärpät, Lukko, Tappara, TPS and Ässät.

Additionally, there were two games where teams could choose the opponents. These were played back-to-back in January and the choices were made in December, with team with lowest point total to that date was able to choose first. These pairs were: Ilves-Tappara, SaiPa-HPK, TPS-Lukko, Kärpät-Blues, JYP-HIFK, Jokerit-Pelicans and Ässät-KalPa.

Top six advanced straight to quarter-finals, while teams between 7th and 10th positions played wild card round for the final two spots. The last-placed team Ilves will play best-of-seven series against Mestis winner Sport.

width=100px \| Team ! width=50px \| GP ! width=50px \| W ! width=50px \| OTW ! width=50px \| OTL ! width=50px \| L ! width=50px \| GF ! width=50px \| GA ! width=50px \| +/− ! width=50px \| P
class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
bgcolor="#e6e6fa" \| align=left \| KalPa \| 60	34	3	7	16	180	139	+41	115
bgcolor="#e6e6fa" \| align=left \| Pelicans \| 60	30	9	3	18	213	155	+58	111
bgcolor="#e6e6fa" \| align=left \| HIFK \| 60	33	6	0	21	194	149	+45	111
bgcolor="#e6e6fa" \| align=left \| JYP \| 60	30	7	4	19	168	122	+46	108
bgcolor="#e6e6fa" \| align=left \| Ässät \| 60	31	4	5	20	189	150	+39	106
bgcolor="#e6e6fa" \| align=left \| Jokerit \| 60	24	8	13	15	183	155	+28	101
bgcolor="#e6f8ef" \| align=left \| Kärpät \| 60	29	4	4	23	164	148	+16	99
bgcolor="#e6f8ef" \| align=left \| Blues \| 60	18	9	10	23	148	165	−17	82
bgcolor="#e6f8ef" \| align=left \| Lukko \| 60	21	7	4	28	162	167	−5	81
bgcolor="#e6f8ef" \| align=left \| TPS \| 60	21	6	3	30	134	180	−46	78
align=left \| SaiPa \| 60	18	5	13	24	155	176	−21	77
align=left \| Tappara \| 60	20	4	5	31	132	188	−56	73
align=left \| HPK \| 60	15	6	5	34	132	201	−69	62
bgcolor="#ffe5e3" \| align=left \| Ilves \| 60	10	8	10	32	140	199	−59	56

Playoffs

= Wild card round (best-of-three) =

Kärpät-TPS 2–0

:Kärpät-TPS 4–1

:TPS-Kärpät 1–2

Blues-Lukko 2–1

:Blues-Lukko 1–0 (OT)

:Lukko-Blues 2–0

:Blues-Lukko 6–3

= Quarterfinals (best-of-seven) =

KalPa-Blues 3–4

:KalPa-Blues 3–1

:Blues-KalPa 0–1

:KalPa-Blues 5–0

:Blues-KalPa 3–1

:KalPa-Blues 2–5

:Blues-KalPa 4–3 (OT)

:KalPa-Blues 1–4

Blues became first team in SM-liiga history to overcome 0–3 deficit to win the series.

Pelicans-Kärpät 4–3

:Pelicans-Kärpät 5–0

:Kärpät-Pelicans 4–3 (OT)

:Pelicans-Kärpät 1–4

:Kärpät-Pelicans 4–1

:Pelicans-Kärpät 4–2

:Kärpät-Pelicans 3–4 (OT)

:Pelicans-Kärpät 3–2

HIFK-Jokerit 0–4

:HIFK-Jokerit 1–3

:Jokerit-HIFK 3–2 (OT)

:HIFK-Jokerit 1–3

:Jokerit-HIFK 2–0

JYP-Ässät 4–0

:JYP-Ässät 4–1

:Ässät-JYP 1–2

:JYP-Ässät 4–3

:Ässät-JYP 1–4

= Semifinals (best-of-seven) =

Pelicans-Blues 4–1

:Pelicans-Blues 5–3

:Blues-Pelicans 1–3

:Pelicans-Blues 1–2 (OT)

:Blues-Pelicans 4–6

:Pelicans-Blues 2–1

JYP-Jokerit 4–1

:JYP-Jokerit 2–1 (OT)

:Jokerit-JYP 2–3

:JYP-Jokerit 3–2 (2OT)

:Jokerit-JYP 2–1

:JYP-Jokerit 3–2 (OT)

= Bronze-medal game =

Jokerit-Blues 4–3 (2OT)

= Finals (best-of-seven) =

Pelicans-JYP 1–4

:Pelicans-JYP 2–0

:JYP-Pelicans 6–2

:Pelicans-JYP 1–4

:JYP-Pelicans 5–4 (OT)

:Pelicans-JYP 1–2 (OT)

Relegation (best-of-seven)

Ilves-Sport 4–1

:Ilves-Sport 6–1

:Sport-Ilves 1–5

:Ilves-Sport 0–2

:Sport-Ilves 2–3 (OT)

:Ilves-Sport 4–0

Finnish

Category:Liiga seasons