NHL FINAL: BEST RATINGS INCE 1974

The final game of hockey’s Stanley Cup averaged 7.57 million viewers in primetime, peaking in the 10:30 p.m. half-hour with 9.64 million. (Numbers for the 11:00 p.m. half hour were not immediately available, but were likely higher.) It was the biggest audience to watch a televised hockey match since 1974. The first two hours of the hockey match, which produced the first victory since 1969 for the Chicago Blackhawks, were topped by Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance, which averaged 8.03 million viewers. But at 10:00 p.m. a repeat of CBS’s CSI NY drew more viewers than Dance — 8.34 million, to place second behind the Stanley Cup telecast during that hour.