The Great Canadian Ratings Report: Memorial Cup final a big hit even without McDavid

When the Oshawa Generals knocked the Erie Otters out in the Ontario Hockey League championship, there were no doubt a few long faces at Sportsnet headquarters. More than the usual number, that's for sure.

After all, without the Otters in the Memorial Cup tournament there wasn't going to be Connor McDavid to drive ratings. All that was left were a lot of guys who are household names only in their own households.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Memorial Cup. Viewers warmed up to the junior hockey teams and produced a near-record rating in Sunday's final. The game between the Generals and Kelowna Rockets averaged an amazing 759,000 viewers -- the second biggest Memorial Cup audience in Sportsnet's history.

In fact, the only game that drew a larger audience was the 2005 final that featured some guy named Sidney Crosby. It drew an average of 806,000 viewers.

One can only imagine what kind of audience Sunday's game would have drawn had the biggest junior star since Crosby been there. Heck, the entire city of Edmonton might have been watching.

There are a few possible explanations for Sunday's big audience. For one, it was basically the only sports event on TV so all worshippers of the sweaty arts passed on Masterpiece Theatre even if they didn't know a General from a Rocket.

Secondly, the game went into overtime. That not only holds the existing audience but pulls in channel surfers who want to experience the drama of sudden death, what with The Walking Dead in hiatus.

Thirdly, the McDavid hype spawned a few new junior hockey fans turned on by the Oshawa-Erie series.

Whatever the reason, it's great news for the Canadian Hockey League.

Here are the most-watched English-language sports events from the past weekend, according to Numeris overnight ratings:

1. NHL, Blackhawks at Ducks, Saturday, CBC: 2,600,000

2. NHL, Lightning at Rangers, Friday, CBC: 2,200,000

3. Junior hockey, Memorial Cup final, Sunday, Sportsnet: 759,000

4. MLB, Blue Jays at Twins, Sunday, Sportsnet: 618,000

5. MLB, Blue Jays at Twins, Saturday, Sportsnet: 597,000

6. MLB, Blue Jays at Twins, Friday, Sportsnet: 334,000

7. Auto racing, NASCAR Fedex 400, Sunday, TSN: 264,000

8. PGA, Byron Nelson final round, Sunday, Global: 264,000

9. Women's soccer, Canada vs. England, Friday, TSN: 190,000

10. PGA, Byron Nelson third round, Saturday, Global: 155,000

11. Junior hockey, Memorial Cup semifinal, Friday, Sportsnet: 140,000

12. Soccer, San Jose at Toronto FC, Saturday, TSN: 126,000

13. Soccer: Aston VIlla at Arsenal, Saturday, Sportsnet One: 110,000

14. Martial arts, UFC preliminaries, Saturday, TSN: 109,000

15. Tennis, French Open, Sunday, TSN: 99,0000

THREE TO WATCH

CUP RUNNETH OVER: Once again, Canada hasn't been invited to the NHL's big prom, but Canadians will still have plenty of reasons to tune in to the Stanley Cup final. Mainly, it's what they do, but this one also promises to be a pretty good series between two well-matched teams. The Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning start things Wednesday, 8 p.m. ET (CBC.)

LE GRAND RACQUET: Hey, there's no big Canadian hopes in tennis this week, either, with Eugenie Bouchard and Milos Raonic out of things at the French Open. Raonic was injured while Bouchard just didn't play very well. But the usual suspects are all there, so there's plenty of good tennis on tap. The women's final goes Saturday (9 a.m., ET) with the men exchanging serves Sunday at the same time. Both are on TSN and NBC.

WOMEN GET THEIR KICKS: At last, some meaningful Canadian content. (If you're sensing a trend here, that's it.) Canada gets to strut is stuff both on and off the pitch when the Women's World Cup kicks off Saturday. Canada takes on China in the opener (Saturday, 6 p.m. ET, TSN.)