Versus skated to the most-watched regular-season National Hockey League game in its history, with its coverage of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings on March 22.
The Monday night rematch of the last two Stanley Cup Finals, a 3-1 win by the Wings, averaged a 0.7 rating and 622,000 viewers, accoring to Nielsen data. That topped the 0.6 mark for the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals on Oct. 27, 2009 and the 577,000 watchers for the Red Wings-Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 9, 2008, opening night of the 2008-09 regular season.
It also ranked at the most-watched NHL regular season game on cable since 2004, according to Versus executives.
Locally, the game netted a 6.7 household rating in the Pittsburgh DMA, while it scored a 4.7 in the Detroit DMA rating making Versus the top-rated cable network in both of those areas on March 22, according to network officials.
