In the Jukka Tuominen era, Helsinki was used to knocking on the door of the EURO League penthouse, but they always met disappointment. Three seasons in a row (11 through 13), the Jokerit finished the regular season with the most points in the league. But the Cup always seemed to end up in Copenhagen or Berlin. 
Not in Season 15. The Finns were able to reel off 11 straight wins and sweep both the Tridents and Smurfs to lift the Cup in Berlin. They won 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 and 3-1 in the Finals, which is being dubbed the Suitcase Series because of the GMs’ frequent visits to Sepp Blatter, the league’s Director of Safety and Player Discipline. Blatter didn’t watch the last game, choosing instead to visit a new home he bought in San Marino.
Helsinki nearly went home in the first round of the playoffs and then again in the second. Against London, the Jokerit won Game 7 by a 2-1 score, as goalie Andrew Hammond almost stole the series from them with a 43-save performance. Against Minsk, Helsinki found themselves on the brink again, trailing 3 games to 1. A dominant 6-0 win in Game 5 and big second period in Minsk swung momentum Helsinki’s way and they rode that wave to the end.
Goalie Frederik Andersen was the horse the Jokerit rode for the 22 playoff games. He led the league with a 2.34 playoff goals against average and his .910 save percentage was third behind Athens’ Andres De La Garma and Madrid’s Nico Hovinen.
Tyler Seguin, Helsinki’s captain, joined the team this season after a dozen years in Oslo. He ended up as the league’s top scorer in the playoffs with 29 points in 22 games. 
Both Andersen and Seguin came to Helsinki this season in trades.
A key to the Jokers’ success against Berlin was in shutting down the Smurfs’ mighty top line. The top Smurfs managed just 3 goals in the 4 games of the Finals. Vadim Shipachyov, the Smurfs’ right wing who blazed his way to the top of the league point total after 3 rounds of the playoffs, wound up scoring 14 goals in 21 games, but just one of those came against Andersen.
Two Helsinki left wingers actually outdid Shipachyov in the goal scoring department. Kyle Connor and Taylor Hall each ended with 16 playoff goals.
During the regular season, Helsinki finished behind President’s Trophy-winning Copenhagen and they tied Belfast with 122 points for second. They had four forwards who scored 30 or more goals: Brendan Gallagher (44), Seguin (36), Brock Boeser (32) and Jonathan Toews (32). Gallagher also led the squad in points with 90, while Hall led all Jokerit in plus-minus be a 10-goal margin.