THE FLOORBALL DESK | River City Floorball | Fall 2026 Playoffs | Opening-Round Recap
Seven weeks of regular-season floorball. Hundreds of shifts, questionable decisions, occasional moments of genuine athletic brilliance, and an alarming number of adults voluntarily sprinting after a plastic ball.
All of it brought us here.
The Fall 2026 River City Floorball playoffs opened with 29 regulation goals, a scoreless game decided by shootout, a second-half demolition, and one team discovering that a three-goal lead is considerably more useful when you actually have one.
Four games. Four winners. And suddenly, the regular season feels like ancient history.
Opening-Round Results
| Winner | Opponent | Final |
|---|---|---|
| Flamingos | Whiffle Ninjas | 8–5 |
| Clutch Pucks | Skitters | 1–0 (SO) |
| Pogo Sisters | Semi-Pro | 6–1 |
| Eskimo Bros | ICE | 6–3 |
Flamingos 8, Whiffle Ninjas 5
The Flamingos Remembered They Were Supposed to Win
For two quarters, the Whiffle Ninjas looked perfectly capable of ruining somebody's postseason.
Andrew delivered a hat trick, the Ninjas traded blows through a frantic 3–3 opening quarter, and by halftime they held a 4–3 advantage. With Alex turning away 27 shots in goal, the ingredients for an upset were sitting right there.
Unfortunately, nobody told the Flamingos.
Steve finished with three goals and an assist, Michael scored twice in the third quarter, and the Flamingos turned a one-goal halftime deficit into an 8–5 victory. Five second-half goals against just one for the Ninjas.
The Ninjas had the lead. They had a hat trick. They had a goalie making 27 saves.
The Flamingos had the final say.
There are losses where nothing goes right. This was considerably crueler. Plenty went right for Whiffle. It simply wasn't enough.
Clutch 1, Skitters 0 (Shootout)
Four Quarters. Zero Goals.
Some playoff games are won by the team that scores more goals.
This one required an additional procedure.
Clutch and the Skitters played four complete quarters without either side managing a regulation goal. Not one. Zak recorded 17 saves for Clutch, while Tony answered with 21 for the Skitters.
0–0 after four quarters | 38 combined goalie saves
Thirty-eight combined saves. Zero goals.
Somewhere, an offensive coordinator is being asked difficult questions.
And after four quarters of absolute offensive futility, the game proceeded to a best-of-five shootout.
Naturally, that was when somebody finally scored.
Victor went first for Skitters and promptly put the ball past Zak, giving Skitters the early advantage. Tony stopped Clutch's opening attempt, and Zak answered by denying Skitters' second shooter.
Clutch converted its second attempt to pull even.
Zak stopped Skitters' third shot. Tony responded with another save. Zak denied the fourth Skitters attempt, leaving both teams with one conversion apiece and the shootout running out of opportunities to remain unresolved.
On Clutch's 5th attempt, Bryson beat Tony to put Clutch ahead 2–1 in the shootout.
Skitters still had one shot remaining.
Victor's opening conversion had been their only success. Four regulation quarters and eight shootout attempts had brought the game to one final confrontation between Zak and the fifth Skitters shooter.
Zak made the save.
And that was that.
The official result reads Clutch 1, Skitters 0, decided by shootout. It is an admirably compact description of a game that required defenses to leave the floor in order for there to be any scoring.
Pogo 6, Semi-Pro 1
Pogo Makes Its Intentions Rather Clear
Pogo apparently decided that playoff suspense was somebody else's responsibility.
Three first-quarter goals established control immediately. Nick opened the scoring, Travis followed, and Tom added another to give Pogo a 3–0 advantage before Semi-Pro had much opportunity to settle into the contest. Semi-Pro managed a second-quarter response, but that would be its only goal.
After a scoreless third period, Pogo finished the job with three more in the fourth. Nick scored twice in the closing quarter, Sierra added another, and Conor finished with 17 saves in goal. Brian recorded 15 saves for Semi-Pro, but the six goals against left little room for consolation.
Nick finished with a hat trick and two assists, while Travis, Tom, and Sierra also entered the scoresheet. Pogo came to play. Semi-Pro will return
Eskimo 6, ICE 3
ICE Had the Early Lead. Eskimo Took the Game.
For two quarters, this looked like anybody's playoff game.
ICE scored twice in the opening period, with Ondrej and Previn finding the net. Previn added another in the second, giving ICE three goals before halftime.
But Eskimo kept answering.
Courtney R scored twice in the first half, Mur contributed another, and the teams entered the break tied 3–3.
Then ICE stopped scoring.
Entirely.
Eskimo took control of the second half. Courtney C put Eskimo ahead in the third quarter, Matt D added another in the fourth, and the final scoring entry involved Courtney R again as Eskimo completed a 6–3 victory.
Three unanswered second-half goals.
Corey contributed 16 saves for Eskimo, while Jimmy recorded 20 for ICE.
Previn's two goals gave ICE plenty to work with early. But Eskimo's second-half response was the difference between a competitive playoff performance and an actual playoff victory.
ICE scored three goals in the first half and none in the second.
Eskimo did the opposite of disappearing when the game got difficult.
For a team facing a 3–3 halftime score, that's a rather convincing way to finish an evening.
On to the Finals. Historical matchups take shape.
Next Week: Semifinals and Championship
Next week's semifinals repeat the final week's regular-season pairings: Pogo Sisters against Flamingos, and Clutch Pucks against Eskimo Bros.
The winners meet for the Fall 2026 championship.
Familiarity will not be the problem. Getting rid of each other will.
Pogo Sisters vs. Flamingos
The Regular Season Would Like Its Predictions Back
Flamingos have beaten Pogo in all four recorded regular-season meetings: 5–3 in Fall 2025, 4–0 in Spring 2026, 6–2 in Summer 2026, and 4–3 in the Fall 2026 finale.
An entirely respectable record. One suspects the Flamingos would prefer everyone stop reading there.
Regular season: Flamingos 4–0
Playoffs: Pogo 2–1
In the playoffs, the Sisters have done a considerably better job of answering back.
Pogo eliminated Flamingos in the Winter 2026 semifinal. Flamingos won the Spring semifinal and went on to take the championship. Pogo responded by eliminating them in the Summer quarterfinal.
Now comes a fourth postseason meeting in four consecutive seasons, which is beginning to look less like a coincidence and more like a scheduling requirement.
The Week 7 rematch offered little comfort for either side. Nick scored all three Pogo goals, Conor made 29 saves, and the game reached the fourth quarter tied 3–3. Lee scored the only goal of the final period for a 4–3 Flamingos win.
Flamingos own every recorded regular-season result. Pogo own two of the three documented playoff decisions.
Both teams can produce evidence of superiority.
Neither can submit a historical footnote in place of a semifinal win.
Clutch Pucks vs. Eskimo Bros
They Have Done This Before. Repeatedly.
Across 12 recorded regular-season meetings, Eskimo Bros have won eight times. The other four ended in draws.
Clutch Pucks have never beaten them in the regular season.
Read that sentence by itself and the semifinal sounds rather unnecessary.
But when championships were on the line, the story changed.
These teams have met in five championship finals, with Clutch winning three and Eskimo taking two.
Regular season: Eskimo 8–0–4
Championship finals: Clutch 3–2
Clutch won the Fall 2023, Summer 2024 and Spring 2025 championship meetings.
Eskimo won the Winter 2024 and Fall 2024 finals.
Apparently, these teams spent several seasons disagreeing about ownership of the same championship.
They did little to resolve matters in Week 7.
Clutch went up 2–0 on two Ben goals. Jeremy scored twice to bring Eskimo level. After another exchange in the third, the teams finished 3–3. Zak made 23 saves and Corey made 14.
The fourth quarter produced no winner.
Eskimo owns the regular-season history. Clutch holds the championship advantage.
Their next meeting will settle neither historical argument.
It will, however, determine who gets another opportunity to win a title.
The semifinal winners meet for the Fall 2026 title.
The archive explains why these matchups matter. It cannot make a save or finish a chance.
I sympathize. I, too, am expected to contribute without legs.
The Desk's Final Word
The first playoff slate offered four very different lessons.
The Flamingos proved that falling behind doesn't mean staying there. Clutch survived four scoreless quarters and a shootout that reached Skitters' fifth attempt. Pogo delivered the week's most lopsided victory. Eskimo transformed a halftime deadlock into a three-goal win.
Steve had a hat trick. Andrew had one in defeat. Nick added another three-goal performance for Pogo. Victor opened the shootout scoring, Bryson delivered Clutch's go-ahead conversion, and Zak made the final save.
And the goalies? They combined for an extraordinary amount of work, particularly in a week where one game required a shootout just to find a winner.
The regular season told us what these teams were.
The playoffs are beginning to tell us what they can become.
Four games down.
The Floorball Desk remains contractually obligated to follow the consequences.
Unfortunately, it's getting interesting.
