NEW YORK, June 14 (UPI) -- The 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs attracted the largest audiences in the sport's history across all its media platforms, NHL officials said Monday.
The league's TV surge was capped by Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals in which the Chicago Blackhawks downed the Philadelphia Flyers to claim the championship. The June 9 broadcast on NBC was the most-watched NHL game in the United States in 36 years with 8.28 million viewers -- it was also the highest-rated NHL game (4.7 rating) on U.S. television in that span.
The four games in the title series carried by NBC averaged 6.1 million viewers, the best showing for hockey on network TV in 13 years, NHL Chief Operating Officer John Collins said.
Meanwhile, record Stanley Cup ratings were scored in local markets such as Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Boston and the playoffs' popularity also ranked highly on the Internet, with five of the Top 20 Google searches on June 9 being Stanley Cup-related.
"It's a fitting cap to a season that saw record-breaking business success for the league," Collins said.
