This just in: “Hockey moms” really did tune into to watch one of their own at Thursday’s veep debate at Washington University.

The television ratings service Nielsen says that hockey moms — “defined as women ages 25 to 54 who live in homes with children and who watched at least six minutes of the most recent Stanley Cup Finals” — were more likely than the average viewer to have watched self-proclaimed hockey mom Sarah Palin tangle with Joe Biden.

The vice-presidential “debate drew 23.8% of all mothers (ages 25 to 54), while 33% of those women defined as ‘hockey moms’ tuned in,” Nielsen reports. “Overall, ‘hockey moms’ were 38.7% more likely than average moms to have watched the V.P. debate.”