‘Heated Rivalry,’ a story of queer love, is an inspiration for some in Saskatchewan

From athletes to book lovers, filmmakers to politicians, people around the country are loving ‘Heated Rivalry,’ a love story between two male hockey players.

The television adaptation was released on the Canadian streaming service Crave just before Christmas of 2025. It’s based on a book series, written by Canadian author Rachel Reid, which follows the love story between Canada’s Shane Hollander and Russia’s Ilya Rozanov.

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The two young men are destined for success on the ice, but their rivalry quickly turns into a romance, and changes how they navigate their professional hockey careers in the fictional Major Hockey League, with no openly gay players.

The story even has a Saskatchewan connection, with the main characters meeting in Regina prior to their professional rookie season in what’s called the International Prospect Cup, a fictional tournament similar to the World Juniors.

This image released by Crave shows Hudson Williams (left), who plays Montreal Metros’ team captain Shane Hollander. Connor Storrie plays on the rival team, the Boston Raiders, also representing his team as captain. They star on the hit show ‘Heated Rivalry.’ (Crave via AP)

While the story of hockey athletes and a shoutout to Saskatchewan was fun to watch for former athlete and queer health advocate Kara Haus, what really hit home was the happy love story.

Hollander and Rosanov met playing hockey and didn’t like each other at first, but fell for each other along the way and had to keep their love a secret. That story is all too familiar for Haus and her wife, Dru.

“You just enter this world, and it’s just the two of you, and your secret is difficult, and it’s very sad you have to keep it, but it’s also sort of this safety that you have with one other person, and I think that grows your connection as well. This show did a really good job of getting the viewer in the middle of that,” she said.

Kara Haus (left) and her wife, Dru (right), with Haus’ niece, whom the pair are raising after Haus’ sister passed away in 2025. (Kara Haus/Submitted)

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Similar to Hollander and Rozanov, Haus said she and her wife didn’t exactly like each other at first.

“She always wore sunglasses up on the top of her head, so I really didn’t like her at all,” Haus said, talking about playing hockey with her future wife.

The pair met when they were teens, filling in for their dad’s rec hockey teams when they needed an extra player. Haus was a goalie and Dru was a forward. It wasn’t until 2006 that the pair reunited, playing for the Saskatchewan Prairie Ice team, based in Lumsden, which was part of the Western Women’s Hockey League.

Growing up, Haus (left) said there weren’t a lot of opportunities for young female hockey players. Her dad pushed hard to get the girls ice time. They were given the 8 a.m. slot on Sundays, and girls of all ages showed up every week. (Kara Haus/Submitted)

During a trip to Minneapolis, while most of the team wanted to visit the Mall of America, Haus and Dru were less than interested, so they decided to grab dinner together.

“I found out she didn’t like cheese, which didn’t help with the idea that I didn’t really like her that much,” Haus said with a laugh. “But we just kind of started talking, and then we just never really quit talking.”

That’s when their secret romance began.

“It had started out like, ‘I really, really don’t like you,’ and I think part of it was I really, really don’t like that she made me feel like this could be my life,” Haus said.

And the rest is history. The pair have been married for almost 15 years now.

Haus said ‘Heated Rivalry’ does a good job of creating queer characters and showing how they navigate relationships.

“There were so many times in that show where I was like, ‘Oh my god, I cannot believe how accurate this is to how we were.’ But then I think about it and we aren’t special. That is the story for so many queer couples,” she said.

Dru (left) and Kara Haus on their wedding day. (Kara Haus/Submitted)

Queer people deserve happy endings

‘Heated Rivalry’ is unlike anything Haus had seen in the media.

She said she’s used to queer stories that end in tragedy, or stories that feature characters who are made to be laughed at or disgust the audience, but in ‘Heated Rivalry,’ that doesn’t happen.

“The fact that that we’re waiting the entire show for the bad thing to happen, and then it doesn’t, and people want to see that over and over again because they feel like this is just a love story that went well,” Haus said.

This image released by HBO Max shows Connor Storrie, left, and Hudson Williams in a scene from the series ‘Heated Rivalry.’ (HBO Max via AP)

She said it was refreshing to see a queer love story with no fallout, noting that the character of Hollander’s mom, Yuna, continues to act the way she normally would after Shane comes out of the closet.

“She’s very much just being his mom, exactly how she’s always been his mom. And it’s like, ‘OK, this has now entered our lives, and now I’m going to mom this.’ And so I think people really resonate with it, because it’s the Hollywood ending that everybody wants,” she said.

While queer representation and acceptance have a long way to go in the National Hockey League, Haus said she hopes stories like ‘Heated Rivalry’ will move those conversations in the right direction.

“In the PWHL, they’re very open about it. You see Marie Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey… and people get up for it. It’s very celebrated in the women’s game,” she explained. “I think in the men’s game, it’s, again, quite the opposite, which is unfortunate and sad to see. I’m hoping it brings that to a sort of a different light.”

Haus (left) and her wife Dru continue to go to many NHL and PWHL games. (Kara Haus/Submitted)

The show seems to be making waves in the real professional leagues, with ticket sales for both the NHL and PWHL soaring after the show’s release. Even NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has taken notice, saying he watched all six episodes of ‘Heated Rivalry’ in a single night.

Haus also noted that ‘Heated Rivalry’ does a good job of showcasing consent, especially following the sexual assault allegations against former Hockey Canada junior players. The five players charged with sexual assault were ultimately acquitted following a high-profile trial.

“I think that was a very important piece of the show, to show that consent can be understood in many different forms, and that was very important for them to really drive that home,” Haus said.

Kara Haus is a former hockey player and now works as a chiropractor serving the queer community, including transgender and non-binary patients. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)

Books ‘flying off the shelf’ at public libraries

On the literary side, libraries across the province can’t keep the book on their shelves.

‘Heated Rivalry’ is part of a six-part, soon-to-be-seven-part series called “Game Changers,” written by Reid, who hails from Nova Scotia. It’s a romance series focusing on male professional hockey players finding love, with a seventh entry in the works.

Geoffrey Allen, director of collections at the Regina Public Library, said at one point last month, over 200 people were waiting to get a physical copy of the second book in the series, ‘Heated Rivalry.’

“‘Heated rivalry’ is a really popular series for us right now. We’re bringing in numerous extra copies of the book to try to meet demand,” Allen said.

“It’s just flying off the shelf.”

Geoffrey Allen said he was excited to see Regina get a shoutout in the opening scene of the show. “It’s really exciting to see that it’s here at home and that it is so imbued with Canadian culture,” they said. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)

But for those too impatient to wait for a physical copy, Allen said there are lots of ways to read the book.

“We also have digital copies on our two main digital platforms, both Libby Overdrive and on Hoopla,” he said.

In a release on Monday, the library said it is offering unlimited digital copies of the popular book. All readers need is a library card.

It’s one of many libraries to make the audiobook available without a waiting list, like the Toronto Public Library.

While Allen is more of a non-fiction reader and hasn’t read the books, they are a fan of the show.

“It’s a wonderful series. I’ve really enjoyed watching it. It’s been great. It’s such a wonderful positive depiction of gay men in popular culture right now, I think it’s marvellous,” Allen said.

While the physical copy might be hard to grab at the library, there are digital copies ready for immediate download. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)

Sask. film industry excited by show’s success

While Creative Saskatchewan didn’t play a role in the creation of ‘Heated Rivalry,’ the worldwide success of a Canadian show is exciting for the industry as a whole.

Robert Hardy is the executive director of Screensask, the province’s film and television industry association. He said the show made its debut on the Canadian streaming Crave, but it quickly garnered a global following.

“‘Heated rivalry’ is a phenomenon,” Hardy said.

“When something like this goes to the States and is on HBO and everybody in the U.S. is talking about it, we get really excited because it almost makes us feel like, ‘Yeah, you know what? We do good stuff too.'”

Robert Hardy with Screensask said great productions are filmed in Saskatchewan, like ‘Die Alone,’ which landed on Amazon Prime’s top 10 most-watched movies on Prime Video. Hardy said he’d love to see Regina get a team in the fictional Major Hockey League, welcoming the idea of the next season of ‘Heated Rivalry’ being filmed in Saskatchewan. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)

He said the success of the show reminds film crews in Saskatchewan that any show made in Canada has the potential to become a global hit.

“If any Canadian show sells well around the world, that means people are gonna go: ‘I need to make stuff in Canada. Maybe I’ll bring my stuff to Saskatchewan,'” Hardy said.

He said the exposure from ‘Heated Rivalry’ will help open the world up to other productions made in Canada.

Even politicians jumping on the trend

Prime Minister Mark Carney said ‘Heated Rivalry’ reflects core Canadian values as 2SLGBTQIA+ rights face pressure around the world.

“The world knows that Shane and Ilya are rising hockey stars who fall for each other as they face off in one of the greatest rivalries the game has ever known,” Carney said in a speech at an industry conference in Ottawa after he walked the red carpet with series star Hudson Williams.

“But they’re also two young men who are terrified of being their fullest self. And we live in an increasingly dangerous, divided and intolerant world. And the hard-fought rights of the 2SLGBTQI + community are under threat, including in many of the countries where the show has record-setting audiences.”

Carney added that “a fundamental Canadian value is that people should be able to be whoever they want to be. To love whoever they want to love.”

Hudson Williams, star of the TV series ‘Heated Rivalry,’ presents Prime Minister Mark Carney with a sweater from the show on the red carpet at the Prime Time screen and media industry conference gala in Ottawa, on Thursday, January 29, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle

Carney also made plenty of jokes in his speech, including that as a politician, he’s not “above taking credit” for the Canadian government’s support in getting the show made.

“I might not have been here, but… I’m here now,” he said, to laughs in the crowd.

—with files from 980 CJME’s Gillian Massie and The Canadian Press