Ottawa/Buffalo: Games 1 and 2

All of the games in the 3rd round are nationally televised and Versus had Games 1 and 2. Both games garnered respectable figures, but the strong Thursday night network lineup hurt the game 1 number:

Ottawa’s 5-2 victory in the first game of the series Thursday sure put a dent into the Thursday night ratings for local prime time favorites, “Grey’s Anatomy” and “CSI.” “CSI” scored a 14.8, and “Grey’s” had a 13.2 rating. They both typically get ratings in the 18-20 range. Of course, ABC repeats “Grey’s” on Fridays, and both shows are heavily DVRed. The Sabre game had a combined 23.8 rating on Versus and CBC.

That broke down to a 19.9 for Versus and a 3.9 for CBC. Game 2 was slightly higher:

After all, the game had a combined 27.6 rating on Versus (21.3) and CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada” (6.3), so there were a lot of potential viewers available for extensive postgame coverage.

Good numbers, but not as high as the Rangers series.