May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Last year's Stanley Cup Finals on Walt Disney Co.'s ABC drew the lowest U.S. television ratings for the National Hockey League's championship series. That record might be broken this year.

The Western Conference champion Calgary Flames lack well- known stars, are in the playoffs for the first time since 1996 and come from a Canadian city that isn't included in the TV ratings used by U.S. networks to set advertising rates.

Their opponent will be the winner of tomorrow's game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers, who split the first six games of their Eastern Conference series. While the Flyers are a perennial playoff contender from the fourth-largest U.S. media market, the Lightning have had only three winning seasons in their 12-year history and attract little attention outside the Tampa Bay area.

``For most of the country, there's no reason to watch hockey,'' said Mark Winneker, director of consulting for The Marketing Arm, a Dallas-based company that provides advice on sports marketing.

Last year's finals between the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Mighty Ducks averaged a 2.9 rating -- less than half the audience for the National Basketball Association Finals -- even though the NHL series went to a decisive seventh game and featured teams from the two largest U.S. media markets.

Finals Matchup

Now, the NHL is facing the possibility of a Calgary-Tampa Bay series that would have even less appeal in the U.S., where hockey gets the lowest ratings of the four major professional sports.

``This is not an ideal matchup for the NHL,'' former CBS Sports President Neal Pilson, who now runs a sports consulting firm, said in a telephone interview.

Disney's ESPN cable network will televise the first two games of the finals before ABC shows the rest of the best-of- seven series. The finals start next Tuesday at Tampa Bay or Philadelphia.

Mike Pearl, senior vice president and executive producer of ABC Sports, said the network doesn't worry about matchups because it can't control which teams play for the championship. ``Television is like a game of poker,'' Pearl said in an e-mail. ``You have to do the best you can with the hand you're dealt.''

National Hockey League spokeswoman Bernadette Mansur said the sport should benefit by having fresh faces in the finals.

``There are tremendous stories to follow, and this is a great chance to bring new personalities to viewers across the country,'' she said in a telephone interview.

Low Ratings

Low ratings are one of the reasons that ABC won't be showing NHL games after this season. Although ESPN will continue to televise the NHL, General Electric Co.'s NBC will replace ABC as the league's over-the-air network under a revenue-sharing agreement that doesn't include the traditional rights fee.

Disney paid the NHL $600 million over the past five years to broadcast games on ABC and ESPN, far less than the fees commanded by the other major sports. The National Football League is getting $17.6 billion over eight years for its TV rights, while the NBA is receiving $4.6 billion over six years and Major League Baseball is getting $3.35 billion through 2006.

In addition to an unattractive championship matchup, fans also may be turned off by a looming NHL labor dispute that may wipe out next season and further damage a league whose owners said they lost $273 million during the 2002-03 season.

``This couldn't come at a worse time for the league,'' John Mansell, senior media analyst at market researcher Kagan World Media, said in a telephone interview.

Merchandise Sales

ABC's regular-season NHL ratings tied for the lowest ever, averaging 1.1 percent of the 108.4 million U.S. households with televisions.

``This can't be the script the league wanted, going into this offseason with really bad television ratings,'' said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon.

While the Lightning and Flames have All-Star players such as Tampa Bay goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and Calgary captain Jarome Iginla, they aren't household names in the U.S.

The lack of national appeal is reflected in sales of the teams' merchandise. The Flames ranked 27th among the NHL's 30 teams this year, while the Lightning were 15th, according to SportsScanINFO, a company in Coral Gables, Florida, that tracks sports merchandise sales.

``It's very hard to start marketing players to viewers this late in a season,'' Winneker said.

Canadian TV

The Flyers ranked second in merchandise sales behind the Detroit Red Wings, and the jerseys of Philadelphia All-Stars Jeremy Roenick and John LeClair were among the league's top-10 sellers.

While Calgary won't be a big draw in the U.S., the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is thrilled that the Flames are the first Canadian team to reach the finals since 1994, when the Vancouver Canucks lost to the New York Rangers.

``The Flames will hugely help our ratings,'' CBC spokesman Christian Hasse said in an interview.

To contact the reporter on this story: Allan Kreda in New York akreda@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jay Beberman jbeberman@bloomberg.net