TSN’s live coverage of the Canada vs. Russia gold medal game on Sunday attracted a national average audience of 947,000 viewers, making it the second most-watched World Men’s Championship game ever on TSN, recording a boost of 39% over last year. The game ranked second only to the 2005 gold medal game, which clocked 1.35 million viewers during the NHL lockout.

Audience levels peaked at 1.4 million viewers from 3-3:30 p.m. ET at the end of the game, as Russia defeated Canada 5-4 in overtime. An additional 132,000 viewers tuned in to a primetime encore on TSN, while 450,000 viewers watched on RDS, bringing the total average-minute audience to 1.5 million viewers.

Team Canada’s nine games on TSN averaged 357,000 viewers, making it the second most-successful World Championship tournament after 2005. It also represents a 56% increase over last year’s coverage, which averaged 229,000 viewers over nine Team Canada games.

From Media in Canada