Buffalo a top market for Stanley Cup clincher

Friday night's Rangers-Kings contest is most-watched Stanley Cup Final Game 5 in six years

6.0 million viewers watch Kings win Stanley Cup

The Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup Friday night with a double-overtime 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers in Game 5 of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final. The thrilling contest averaged 6.0 million viewers, making it the most-watched Game 5 in six years and helping NBC win the night in primetime, according to Fast National data from The Nielsen Company.

Los Angeles and New York both scored their second-best local-market ratings ever for an NHL game on NBC or NBCSN. Los Angeles delivered a 12.4 rating, ranking as the market's second-best rating ever on NBC or NBCSN, and up 41 percent vs. Game 5 of the 2012 Stanley Cup Final (8.8), which was a potential Cup-clinching game. Last night's game trailed only the Cup-clinching Game 6 of the 2012 Stanley Cup Final (13.6) as the most-watched in the L.A. market's history for an NHL game on NBC or NBCSN.

New York also scored its second-best NHL rating ever on NBC or NBCSN with a 10.4 rating. It only trailed another double-overtime game, Game 2 of this series, by a tenth of a rating point (10.5).

Buffalo ranked third with a 9.2 rating.

Game 5 (8:13 p.m. to 12:45 a.m.) delivered a 3.7 HH rating and 6.0 million viewers, making it the most-watched Stanley Cup Final Game 5 since the triple-overtime fifth game of the 2008 Stanley Cup Final between Pittsburgh and Detroit (6.2 million, NBC).

Viewership was up 7 percent vs. Game 5 on NBC last year between Chicago and Boston (5.6 million). It was also up a remarkable 82 percent compared to the fifth game of the 2012 Stanley Cup Final, which also featured the Kings (vs. Devils) and was a potential Cup-clinching game (3.3 million).

The game peaked at more than 8.5 million viewers from 12-12:30 a.m.

Following are the Top 10 markets for last night's Game 5:

In primetime, NBC is expected to be No. 1 for the night among the four major broadcast networks in A18-49 (1.9 rating). A primetime win will mean that NBC will have won the night for all three Stanley Cup Final games that aired on the network (Games 1-2, 5).