Best: Rangers-Flyers a ratings hit, but Garden will feel loss

It was a big Sunday for watching men wielding sticks, between the green jackets of Magnolia Lane, the Blueshirts of Broadway and our two local baseball nines.

The fact that the Rangers-Flyers game turned out to be a ratings hit (by hockey standards) against such tough competition only added to the disappointment that the rest of spring will be silent for the surging Rangers.

The play-in game on MSG averaged 2.72 percent of area homes, the best such figure for an NHL regular-season game in New York at least since the lockout of 2004-05.

The number peaked at a healthy 4.48 during overtime and the shootout. But then it was over until autumn.

As frustrated as Rangers fans were, there was a sliver of silver lining in the loss:

The recent policy has been not to raise ticket prices in seasons after the Knicks or Rangers fail to make the playoffs, and there is no indication this occasion will be any different.

Of course, that is not good for business at the Garden, which after last night's Knicks home finale is facing a long, mostly dark couple of months.

Arenas that house NBA and NHL teams are limited in their ability to book other events during playoff season, so the Garden schedule looks a little thin.

Other than a high school basketball event Saturday and four Liberty games, the only events slated for the arena between now and mid-June are a pair of Pearl Jam concerts in May.

Now that the dates reserved for the Rangers have opened up, more events could be added. But actual Rangers games would have been much more fun.

NY says no to Masters

The Masters averaged 8.9 percent of New York-area homes, much higher than any of Sunday's three hockey games, two baseball games or the Knicks but only 55th of the 56 markets measured for the event.

Hey, I thought New York loved Phil Mickelson!

Golf drew a 12.0 rating in major markets, up 36 percent from last year and the best since Tiger Woods won his second green jacket in 2001. Still, that was well behind the record 15.8 for Woods' 1997 romp.

Given the usual Masters mushiness and Mickelson's emotional story, CBS showed reasonable restraint on the cringe meter over the weekend.

Jim Nantz's "win for the family'' tag line suited the occasion and was interpreted by many as a veiled shot at Woods - even if it wasn't intended that way.

CBS did address Woods' off-course saga regularly, if obliquely. (What, you expected Verne Lundquist to rate Woods' girlfriends on a scale of 1 to 10?)

The strangest episode Sunday was the post-round chat with Woods by CBS' Peter Kostis.

Woods came off poorly, seeming every bit the testy, pre-rehab Tiger. But it didn't help that questions were posed awkwardly in a tricky interview situation that called more for a Costas than a Kostis.

Sterling's Grand stand

Thanks to all who responded to Sunday's request for new Curtis Granderson home run calls for John Sterling, who thus far has repurposed "Something Sort of Grandish'' from "Finian's Rainbow" and "The Candy Man'' from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."

Our winner is Ray Gorman of Astoria, who nominated "Yankee Doodle Grandy,'' an homage to the 1942 biography of George M. Cohan.

It's an idea that has been floating around the Internet since Granderson arrived, and it now is time for Sterling to employ it.

Not only is there the obvious "Yankee'' connection, but remember, the Yankee Doodle Boy of the famous song was born on the Fourth of July. Just like George M. Steinbrenner III.

The Dolan family owns controlling interests in the Knicks, MSG and Cablevision. Cablevision owns Newsday.