User:Spitzmauskc/Naisten Liiga

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 on 5 September 2020.

Number of teams
When the 2019–20 Naisten Liiga season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league qualification series (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.

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).

Coaching changes
(*) Indicates interim

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 (alkusarja) will be 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.

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 on 1 December 2020 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. The Naisten Liiga was expected to begin the regular season (also called the upper and lower divisional 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.

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.

Official ranking

Statistics
Scoring leaders

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

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.

Regular season
For the ten-game Naisten Liiga regular season (also called the upper and lower divisional series), the upper division (ylempi jatkosarja), which is played by the six top-ranked teams from the preliminary series, remained unchanged. The lower division (alempi jatkosarja) of the regular season 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 (ristiinkarsinta) of the Naisten Mestis, rather than the top-two from the cross-qualifiers, to account for the additional Naisten Liiga team. The Naisten Liiga regular season was scheduled to be played during 16 January to 21 February 2021.

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.

Statistics
Scoring leaders

The following players led the upper division in points at the conclusion of games played on 16 January 2021.

Leading goaltenders

The following goaltenders lead the upper division in save percentage at the conclusion of games played on 16 January 2021, while starting at least one third of matches.

Standings
Official ranking

Statistics
Scoring leaders

The following players led the lower division in points at the conclusion of games played on 16 January 2021.

Leading goaltenders

The following goaltenders lead the league in save percentage at the conclusion of games played on 16 January 2021, while starting at least one third of matches.

Player of the Month

 * September 2020: Elisa Holopainen (F), KalPa Kuopio
 * October 2020: Nelli Laitinen (D), Kiekko-Espoo
 * November 2020: Estelle Duvin (F), TPS Turku

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.