NEW YORK (AP) - The opener of the Stanley Cup finals drew the best preliminary rating for a Game 1 in 12 years.
The Vancouver Canucks’ last-second 1-0 win over the Boston Bruins earned a 3.2 overnight rating and 6 share on NBC on Wednesday. That’s up 14 percent from last year’s Philadelphia-Chicago Game 1 and the highest since a 3.7 for Buffalo-Dallas in 1999.
The rating was boosted by heavy interest in Boston’s large market, which posted a 25.5/39, topping the 19.1/34 for Game 1 of last year’s Celtics-Lakers NBA finals.
The rating was 113 percent higher than the first game on NBC the last time a Canadian team was in the final. Ottawa-Anaheim in 2007 drew a 1.5/3.
Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned into a program. Shares represent the percentage of all homes with TVs in use at the time. Overnight ratings measure the country’s largest markets.
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