TORONTO (CP) - With no NHL playoffs, it seems the world hockey championship is filling the void for Canadian hockey fans.
TSN averaged 364,000 viewers for Canada's first five games of the tournament, more than double the first five Canadian games last year when an average of 173,000 tuned in.
Canada's tie with Finland in Innsbruck, Austria, on Sunday drew the largest audience of 425,000. An average of 424,000 viewers watched Canada's loss to Sweden on Saturday.
TSN's national average during the 2003-04 NHL regular season was 322,000 per game. Unlike the world championship, those games were prime-time.
Canada's gold-medal hockey win over the United States at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics drew the highest ratings in Canada for a sporting event with more than 10 million English and French-language CBC viewers tuning in.