It was a great night to be in Montreal, but record ratings show that much of the country was tuned in to the Canadiens' Game 7 win on Hockey Night In Canada on Wednesday.

The 3-1 win for the Canadiens over the Boston Bruins set a new Canadian average audience record for an NHL second round playoff broadcast with 4.56 million viewers.

Wednesday's tilt surpassed the previous record by nearly 7.5 per cent, previously held by another Habs contest, a win in Game 7 of the 2010 playoffs against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The audience peaked at 9:48 p.m. ET with an average minute audience of 7.23 million viewers.

Overall, 11.9 million Canadians tuned in to at least part of the game.

The Canadiens will open their Eastern Conference final against the New York Rangers at the Bell Centre on Saturday afternoon on Hockey Night in Canada.

Coverage begins with the Hockey Tonight pre-game show at 12:30 p.m. ET, followed by Game 1 at 1 p.m. ET.

It can all be seen live on CBC Television and CBCSports.ca.