Fans are finding out about the real-life rivals-to-romance story of two Olympic hockey players in the midst of the Heated Rivalry season finale. Based on Canadian author Rachel Reid’s best-selling romance novel of the same name, the second book in her Game Changers series, Heated Rivalry closed out 2025 by becoming a huge surprise hit on HBO Max.

Created for TV by Jacob Tierney, Heated Rivalry stars Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander​​​​​​​ and Connor Storrie​​​​​​​ as Ilya Rozanov, rival hockey players who fall for each other, complicating their careers and the game. Crave and HBO Max confirmed Heated Rivalry season 2 is in the works this month, expected to adapt the sequel novel The Long Game and hit screens sometime no earlier than 2027.

While Heated Rivalry is somewhat inspired by a true story, with Reid revealing that NHL players Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins were the basis for the main characters’ professional rivalry them.us shares a “viral” story that also bears similarities to the plot of the hit new sports drama.

Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) in Heated Rivalry.

Last week, public queer historian Amanda W. Timpson posted on the Instagram account Yesterqueers a video about the story of American Olympian Julie Chu and Canadian Olympian Caroline Ouellette. Both are four-time Olympic hockey players, with Chu being a five-time and Ouellette a six-time world champion, who met when they played against each other in 2002.

The two later reconnected as friends, eventually became partners, and now have two children. “The rivalry between the American and Canadian hockey teams is very intense, so this really was a bit of a Romy and Juliet situation,” says Timpson. Chu and Ouellette were also both team captains who wore the number 13. Check out the Instagram post about them below:

“They faced many of the same challenges that we see in Heated Rivalry,” Timpson also says in the video. Ironically, them.us highligths other couples of one American and one Canadian hockey player, including Meghan Duggan and Gillian Apps​​​​​, and​​ Jayna Hefford and Kathleen Kauth.

Heated Rivalry is a work of fiction, but one that resonates with reality. Heated Rivalry also stars François Arnaud, Franco Lo Presti, Callan Potter, and Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova, and it currently has a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, translating to a bright future on television — which could be inspired by other real-life stories if it goes beyond the source material.