RANKIN INLET - The final results are in and the total number of hits to the Avataq Cup website this past month is nothing short of astonishing.

Brian Tattuinee of Rankin Inlet recorded more than 260,000 hits to the website for the Avataq Cup senior men's hockey championship during a fiveday period this past month. - photo courtesy of Brian Tattuinee

The website for the senior men's hockey championship in Rankin Inlet received 265,116 hits during the five-day event, with 104,472 of those recorded on the final day.

Rankin's Brian Tattuinee, who now resides in Iqaluit, has been maintaining the site for the past three years.

Tattuinee said this was the most number of hits the site received during the past three Avataq events.

He said the site continues to grow in popularity because the tournament itself, is still growing.

"The Avataq Cup is so big right now; people just like to know what's going on," said Tattuinee.

"It's fair to say it's now the biggest hockey event in Nunavut, and people want to keep up with all the latest results as it's being played."

The site features all the latest scores and standings, as well as photos from the action on the ice.

The statistics, including box scores, are updated within minutes of each game being completed.

Tattuinee said he wasn't able to offer online streaming this year, but that's something he hopes to look at in 2011 to make the website even more popular.

He said he received a number of e-mails from users during the tourney, expressing their opinions on the site.

"Some of the e-mails weren't so nice, but most of them were really positive.

"A few people complained of too many photos of Rankin players, so I couldn't help but point out it is a Rankin website.

"I worked with an Iqaluit-based web designer to change the overall look of the site by adding the new rankinhockey.com logo to go along with the Rankin Inlet senior men's hockey logo.

"I posted an online poll asking visitors if they liked the changes to the site and 90 per cent said they did, so I'm pretty pleased with that and I think we're on the right track."