2014 Floorball Madness Tournament Report

The 2014 Floorball Madness Tournament was played Saturday March 1 in Huntington Beach, California. 5 California Teams competed in a full day of intense floorball action.

After all teams had completed the Play-Off qualification round, playing each team once, San Diego came out on top followed by LA, So.Cal, San Francisco, and Fresno.

Four teams qualified for the play-off round. The first semifinal between San Diego and San Francisco was a continuation of the last game in the qualifying round, which ended in a tie. This game could not end in a tie, and at the end San Diego's "team Machine" pulled of a 3-0 win over San Francisco and secured a spot in the Final.

In the second semifinal LA rolled over So.Cal to a comfortable 7-0 win.

The stage was now set for a great final between undefeated San Diego and the Top Offensive LA - the two best teams in the Q-round.

LA came out ready to take on San Diego the Defending Madness Campion from 2013. The game started as expected with both teams going at each other in a tight "full contact" floorball match. Both teams pushed hard but defended even better, offering few scoring chances at both ends.

San Diego had a great opportunity to open up the scoring at 11:53 of the 1st period when awarded a power play on a pushing penalty on LA's Raffael Dickreuter. San Diego failed to convert on the power play and both teams kept working hard to create that "mistake" that would allow them to strike first.

With time winding down in the first, San Diego's Ville Kulmala assisted by Jani Laurila did just that by scoring the first goal of the Final with 1:17 left to play of the first period. LA started pushing hard to respond quickly before the period was over and managed to even up the score with only 37 seconds left to play with a goal from Christoffer Harte assisted by Ernst Eklund.

The second period started like the first one ended with San Diego taking the lead again after only 40 seconds of play by a second goal from Ville Kulmala again assisted by Jani Laurila. LA Responded at 12:39 with a goal from Ernst Eklund assisted by Michael Herring and again the game was tied. San Diego scored only 2 minutes later at 10:39 with a goal this time from Jani Laurila assisted by Ville Kulmala. San Diego now with a 1 goal lead for the 3^rd time in the game would not let it slip away. LA kept pressing during the rest of the game but was unsuccessful against a well playing San Diego defense. The game ended with a San Diego victory 3-2 over LA.

This was a very exciting final to watch, floorball at its best in California, and I believe it could have gone either way.  San Diego, as a team did what they have done so many times before, they found a way to win. This time San Diego's top points makers with 7 points each: #8 Ville Kulmala and #10 Jani Laurila turned out to be the offensive story of the Final, producing all points for San Diego with the game winning goal coming from the stick of Jani Laurila. San Diego's defense with Erin Harnden in goal somehow managed to keep the fire power of LA from scoring. LA had 5 players with 7 points or more led by Tournament top points maker Ernst Eklund (12p) and Tournament top Goal scorer Raffael Dickreuter with 8 goals (10p).

Congratulations to San Diego, The 2014 Floorball Madness Champion

Finally I want to thank all teams, players, referees and volunteers for making Floorball Madness 2014 a success. I also want to take this opportunity to invite you to the US Open 2014.

Book the date: August 23-24, 2014.
Venue: The-Rinks Huntington Beach
More information regarding the US Open will be made available soon.

P. Erik Larsson
Madness/US Open
Tournament Organizer