WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Feb. 20 - This blue-collar prairie city is often belittled for its icy winds in winter, its ravenous mosquitoes in summer and its deplorable skid row in the heart of downtown. Now suddenly modest Winnipeg has some bragging rights.

With the National Hockey League season all but extinguished, Winnipeg's American Hockey League team, the high-scoring Manitoba Moose, has emerged as the hottest box office draw of any professional hockey team in Canada.

That is sweet revenge for a city that has not had an N.H.L. game since 1996, when the Winnipeg Jets left for Phoenix. Now the rest of Canada is finding out what life after the N.H.L. feels like -- and maybe learning a thing or two about the game's traditional roots and joys.

"If there's a Leafs fan who wants to watch hockey, I'm happy to scalp him my ticket to see the Moose!" said Jeff McEachern, 37, a software company executive, referring to the Toronto Maple Leafs. "The Manitoba Moose mean getting out with your neighbor and seeing good hockey without needing to mortgage your house to do it." He spoke Friday night between periods of the Moose's sellout 3-2 overtime victory over the Edmonton Road Runners.