Hockey playoffs ice royals on HTS

Lord Stanley outranks Queen Elizabeth II -- at least on Home Team Sports.

HTS was scheduled to telecast tomorrow night's Baltimore Orioles-California Angels game, which will be attended by the Queen of England. But the Stanley Cup finals also begin tomorrow night, and HTS has been showing the playoffs, carried by SportsChannel America. So, yesterday HTS announced it will take hockey over baseball tomorrow. (HTS will substitute another Orioles game on June 2.)

Channel 2, which was informed of HTS' decision by a reporter, is considering picking up the Orioles game, but may not be allowed to because of blackout restrictions that apply during Wednesday night ESPN major-league telecasts.