WINNIPEG - How can you tell that the majority of Winnipeggers watched Canada win the men's hockey gold medal on TV 18 days ago?

They all flushed in unison.

The City of Winnipeg released a graph to the Winnipeg Sun Wednesday showing the water consumption in the hours before, during and after the Olympic men's hockey final on Feb. 28.

It shows huge peaks at the end of each period as people presumably got up off the couch to go use the bathroom, grab a glass of water or make some ice.

"Everyone was flushing at once," said Diane Sacher, the city's manager of water services.

The peak usage was right after the third period ended with the game headed to overtime, when Winnipeggers were drawing water from the city's three pumping stations at a rate of just under 330 million litres per day (MLD).

"Typically at this time of year we'd see up around 275, so it's quite a bit higher," Sacher said, noting the peak on a hot summer day can produce usage rates as high as 380 MLD.

"The peaks were really impressive but what we were astounded by was the lows."

The end of the third period and the winning overtime moment produced water usage rates almost as low as 175 MLD.

"Typically we don't see that except for the period between midnight and 6 a.m. on a weekday," Sacher said.

Meanwhile, Manitoba liquor stores experienced only a bit of a sales increase the day of the gold medal game.

"Our sales were almost $345,000 provincewide," said Diana Soroka, a spokeswoman for the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission. "Overall, Sundays in February and March are about $325,000 on average, so for us it's not a huge spike."

Soroka noted those numbers do not include sales at beer vendors or private wine stores.

paul.turenne@sunmedia.ca