At the conclusion of the 2022–23 regular season, HIFK and KalPa were favorites for the 2023 Aurora Borealis Cup finals.
[1][4] HIFK Helsinki claimed the first seed, even though they tied KalPa Kuopio with 93 points, by virtue of a higher goal difference, marking the first regular season victory in team history.
Their totals represented a sharp decline from the previous season, in which they had claimed sixteen regulation wins and collected 52 points.
[6] The teams last met in the postseason during the semifinals of the 2022 Aurora Borealis Cup playoffs, which HIFK won in three games.
[7] Michaela Pejzlová led all players in scoring with eleven points (6+5), followed by Emilia Vesa (3+7) and Sanni Vanhanen (5+3).
Ten HIFK players scored a goal in the series: Pejzlová (6), Vanhanen (5), Vesa (3), Clara Rozier (3), Julia Liikala (2), Karoliina Rantamäki (2), Siiri Yrjölä (2), Johanna Kemppainen (1), Erica Korhonen (1), and Nenna Mehtonen (1).
KalPa Kuopio secured the second seed despite tying HIFK with 93 points due to a lower goal difference.
TPS Turku claimed the seventh seed with 14 regulation wins and 49 total points in their fifth Naisten Liiga season.
Notable blue liners included offensive-defenders Anni Timonen (6+16) and Emmi Mourujärvi (6+14), and team performance noticeably improved when French stay-at-home defender Raphaëlle Grenier, who was held to 19 games played due to injury, was in the lineup.
Newly-appointed captain Emmi Rakkolainen was the team’s top performing centre, posting 38 points in 29 games played.
Backup entminter Venla Varis played ten games and recorded a save percentage of 90.1%, 2.63 goals against average, and a shutout.
[18] The following players led the league in points scored in the semifinals at the conclusion of the series on Sunday, 12 March.
The Aurora Borealis Cup bronze medal game (Finnish: pronssiottelu) was played on Saturday, 18 March 2023.
KalPa won the game and claimed the fourth Finnish Championship bronze medal in team history.