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Washington's Game 5 win caps strong Stanley Cup playoffs ratings run

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Washington's Game 5 win caps strong Stanley Cup playoffs ratings run

Washington's championship-clinching win over Vegas ranks as the most-watched Stanley Cup Final Game 5 in 16 years and helped NBCUniversal Media LLC's NBC Sports Group tie the mark for second-most-watched NHL postseason in more than 20 years.

The Capitals' 4-3 win over the Golden Knights on June 7 scored a Total Audience Delivery coverage on NBC (US), NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app of 6.71 million viewers, according to fast national data from Nielsen Holdings and Adobe Analytics. That stands as the most for a Stanley Cup Final fifth contest since the 6.85 million-viewer average for Carolina-Detroit on ABC (US) in 2002, and marks a 51% amelioration from the corresponding game of the Nashville-Pittsburgh 2017 championship round.

Game 5 streaming set an NBC Sports Digital record for an NHL game, tallying 381,000 unique visitors, a 119% jump from the corresponding content last year. The average minute audience of 124,000 is top for an NHL game on NBC and third with the puck sports overall, behind a pair on NBCSN (US), and up 100% from the 2017 equivalent game. The June 7 match-up delivered 24.5 million live minutes, a 121% year-over-year improvement.

In the five-game Stanley Cup Final, Washington star Alex Ovechkin led the Capitals to their first Cup since entering the league in 1974, defeating Vegas, which was looking to make history as the first club among the Big Four sports in North America to win a title in its rookie year.

The final averaged a Total Audience Delivery, or TAD, of 4.92 million watchers on NBC, NBCSN, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app, making it the most-watched championship round since the 5.60 million-viewer average for the six-game Chicago-Tampa Bay series in 2015, and 3% more than the 4.76 million viewers for the 2017 six-game affair in which Pittsburgh repeated as champion by defeating Nashville.

3-year highs

NBC Sports said the 2018 Stanley Cup Final is the best since 1994 for a championship round that did not include any of the league's Original Six squads: Chicago, Boston, New York Rangers, Detroit, Montreal and Toronto.

NBC, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app averaged a TAD of 5.745 million for Games 1, 4, and 5, while NBCSN and the digital platforms averaged a TAD of 3.685 million for Games 2 and 3. Both averages are the best in three years.

All told, the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs averaged a TAD of 1.45 million viewers for 83 games across NBC, NBCSN, CNBC (US), USA Network, Golf Channel (US), NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app. That delivery matched the 2014 and 2015 postseasons as the second-most-watched Stanley Cup Playoffs since 1997, behind only the 1.47 million in 2013, which culminated in a six-game Original Six final between Boston and Chicago. Overall, the 2018 playoffs' TAD grew 4% from 1.39 million viewers in 2017.

On the streaming side, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app set playoff records for all key metrics, including an 84% jump to 3.8 million uniques, a 17% advance to 616 million minutes and a 39% gain in average audience minutes to 42,700 viewers.

This year's postseason performance was achieved despite the absence of Original Six teams Chicago, New York, Detroit and the league's most successful franchise, Montreal. Moreover, Winnipeg advanced to the Western Conference Finals against upstart Vegas. Toronto was the only other Canadian team to make the 2018 postseason. Canadian teams are not measured by Nielsen.

In 2017, five Canadian teams earned postseason berths, with Ottawa advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals.