Heated Rivalry Summary & ending explained

Shane Hollander was seventeen and had never lost a game he'd planned for. He had planned for this one for a year.

Regina, December. The cold outside the rink was the kind that made his teeth ache, and inside it was all noise: Canadian flags, painted faces, a whole country waiting for him to win the junior world title on home ice. Every scout in the building had his name in a notebook.

The other name in those notebooks was Ilya Rozanov.

Shane met him by accident, in a hallway under the stands. A tall Russian kid with messy curls and a lazy smile, leaning against the wall as if he owned the arena.

"Hollander," Ilya said, like he was tasting the word.

"Hi," Shane said, and held out his hand, because his parents had raised him to be polite.

Ilya looked at the hand. He didn't take it. He just smiled wider and walked away, and Shane stood there with his arm in the air, feeling like an idiot.

Two weeks later, Russia beat Canada in the final. In the handshake line Ilya grinned at him, as if the gold medal had been a personal message.

Shane went back to his hotel and didn't sleep.

Six months after that, they were both in stiff new suits at the NHL draft. Everyone knew how it would go. Boston took Ilya first overall. Montreal took Shane second. The reporters loved it before either of them had played a single professional game: the Canadian golden boy and the Russian bad boy, number one and number two, rivals for life.

That night Shane couldn't sleep again, so he went down to the hotel gym. It was empty except for one person on a treadmill.

Of course it was.