Just as last year, a Kentucky Derby lead-in boosted the Stanley Cup Playoffs to a near-record audience.

Saturday’s Penguins-Capitals Stanley Cup Playoffs Game 5 earned a 2.4 rating and 4.3 million viewers on NBC, per Nielsen fast-nationals — flat in ratings and up 4% in viewership from the same matchup in the same post-Kentucky Derby window last year (2.4, 4.2M).

Not counting the Stanley Cup Final, the Capitals’ win delivered the second-largest NHL playoff audience on record (dates back to 1993). Game 7 of the 2015 Blackhawks-Ducks Western Conference final holds the top spot with 4.6 million. Including regular season games, it earned the fifth-largest non-final audience on record, with Penguins-Capitals games making up three of the top six.

Figures do not include the 35,000 who streamed coverage on NBC Sports digital platforms, up 53% from last year. With those viewers included, the game had 4.4 million.

In other action over the weekend, Blues-Predators Game 6 had a 1.2 overnight rating on NBC Sunday afternoon — up 20% from Lightning-Islanders Game 5 last year (1.0). Overnights for Saturday’s Rangers-Senators Game 5 and Sunday’s Ducks-Oilers Game 6 on NBCSN were not available.

Going back to Friday, Predators-Blues Game 5 had a 0.6 (+20%) and 1.1 million (+27%) and Oilers-Ducks had a 0.4 and 568,000, both on NBCSN.

(Wknd. numbers via NBC Sports Group Press Box 5.8, Programming Insider 5.8)