NBCSN earned a 2.9 overnight rating for the Lightning's 3-2 win over the Blackhawks in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final last night, marking the cable net's second-best Cup Final rating ever. Blackhawks-Bruins Game 3 in '13 drew a 3.1 overnight. The rating for last night's game -- which saw competition from the U.S. team's debut in the Women's World Cup on FS1-- is up 16% from a 2.5 overnight in '14 for the Kings' 3-0 shutout win over the Rangers in Game 3. Lightning-Blackhawks Game 3 also drew a 24.0 local rating in Chicago and a 13.2 in Tampa-St. Pete, both records for the respective markets on NBCSN.
THE SHOCK OF THE LIGHTNING: NBC finished with 6.6 million viewers Saturday for the Lightning’s 4-3 win over the Blackhawks in Game 2 from 7:15-10:15pm ET, making it the most-watched Game 2 ever in the U.S. The telecast, which aired on the broadcast net immediately following American Pharoah’s Triple Crown win in the Belmont Stakes, also marks the most-viewed, non-deciding Cup Final game on record. Last year’s Kings-Rangers Game 2, which went to double OT, finished with 6.4 million viewers. Saturday’s game peaked between 9:45-10:00pm with 7.2 million viewers (Josh Carpenter, Staff Writer). ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun wrote Game 2 was a "gem that took your breath away." Lightning coach John Cooper said, "I'll be honest, I don't know how somebody could leave that rink last night and not be an instant hockey fan, if that was your first game." LeBrun wrote the question is whether the rest of the series "can continue in that vein, whether we can have the kind of championship finals that measures up to some of the real good ones we’ve had in recent memory." LeBrun: "I haven’t felt this strongly in a very long time about the need for the Cup finals to measure up as far as their elegance on the ice." For the first time since the '05 lockout and the "important changes that the NHL enacted to open up the game, this season felt like a major step back, including the first two rounds of the playoffs" (ESPN.com, 6/8).
