Ending a year of agony for sports fans, the National Hockey League opened its 2005/06 season to record ratings on TSN and CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, demonstrating that the hockey faithful have not gone astray after last year’s season was wiped out by a labor dispute.

TSN posted a more than threefold viewership jump over the first two weeks of the 2003/04 season.

The CBC, meanwhile, pulled off its first HNIC in more than a year on Saturday, Oct. 8, despite having less than a week to put it together following the end of its staff lockout. The matchup of the Toronto Maple Leafs versus the Montreal Canadiens brought in about 1.7 million viewers, about 46% higher than when the two teams clashed in the HNIC opener in 2003.

A second game that night, between the Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks, generated 1.4 million, up 62% from the 2003 Western Conference season opener, setting a new record for a regular season western game on the Ceeb. The games aired opposite a CFL match on TSN, while Rogers Sportsnet carried Major League Baseball playoffs.

The next HNIC doubleheader, on Oct. 15, saw a ratings jump over week one. The first game – a rematch between the Leafs and Habs – scored 1.9 million viewers, while the Calgary Flames/Edmonton Oilers matchup that followed brought in 1.2 million.

TSN opened the season for the league, airing the Leafs and Ottawa Senators’ game on Oct. 5, garnering 2.1 million viewers and breaking its record for an NHL broadcast from May 2004, which conjured 1.4 million viewers.

The opener was also the third most watched program ever for the sports specialty, behind the World Junior Hockey Championship finals involving Canada in early 2003 and 2005, both of which generated more than three million viewers. The Leafs and Sens peaked at about 2.7 million during the first-ever overtime shootout, brought about by a recent rule change.

The second game broadcast by TSN on Oct. 5, between Vancouver and the Phoenix Coyotes, which boasted Wayne Gretzky’s first crack at coaching as a subplot, brought in a strong 1.3 million, opposite Sportsnet’s MLB playoffs.

TSN had aired five national broadcasts of NHL games by press time, drawing an average of about 965,000 viewers per game, an increase of 355% over the same period during the last hockey season. Three of the games aired on Wednesdays, which the network is positioning as its marquee night for NHL action.

By Oct. 15, during the 2003/04 NHL campaign, TSN’s average for national games was 212,000, and by the end of the full regular season, games averaged 322,000 fans per broadcast.

Although the hockey news is good for CBC, its return to dramatic event TV since the lockout is less encouraging, as it posted a mere 172,000 viewers for the first night of two-part mini Il Duce Canadese, about the internment of Italian Canadians in WWII, which aired on Oct. 16. The second installment aired the following night and garnered an audience of 217,000.