Heated Rivalry might be about hockey–but baby, it’s really about heat.
Let’s be honest: most sports dramas tease sweat and tension, but rarely do they deliver the kind of heat that makes you adjust your shirt collar and turn down the A/C. Then Heated Rivalry barges in — confident, irreverent, and sexy as hell — offering the queer romance we’ve all secretly imagined every time two hockey players glared a little too long at each other.
RELATED: ‘Heated Rivalry’ Drops The Locker Room Tease: Get Ready for Steamy Action!
Set inside the hyper-masculine, body-slamming, “accidentally homoerotic” world of fictional Major League Hockey, the show revolves around two rivals so intense, the ice practically melts when they skate past each other. Shane Hollander, captain of the Montreal Meteors, is the epitome of disciplined, broody Canadian stoicism. His arch-nemesis? Ilya Rozanov, the Boston Raiders’ flirtatious, Russian-born heartthrob who collects goals, tabloids, and bed partners with equal ease. On the ice, they’re fire and ice. Off the ice… well, that’s where the gloves — and everything else — come off.
happy heated rivalry day pic.twitter.com/SzXPqGvE1z
— 🦢 (@tanthalogy) November 27, 2025
Adapted from Rachel Reid’s beloved novel and directed by Jacob Tierney, this six-episode HBO Max series casts Hudson Williams as the uptight Shane and Connor Storrie as the effortlessly sensual Ilya. And no offense to the sports action — which is great — but you’re here for the sex. And Heated Rivalry does not play coy.
Three Sex Scenes Per Episode — Yes, Mama
Tierney, who spoke with Teen Vogue, said it himself: each episode packs three sex scenes. Not hints. Not fade-to-blacks. Scenes. And he wasn’t shy about casting. “Show them everything,” he told his team, instructing them to be fully transparent about the explicit nature of the roles. Anyone uneasy? Don’t bother auditioning.
New Scene from Heated Rivalry on CTV in HQ! pic.twitter.com/yVT0mEyNee
— Hudson Williams Updates (@hudsonwupdates) November 25, 2025
But Williams and Storrie not only accepted — they thrived. Their chemistry read (over Zoom!) had Tierney instantly sold. Connor oozed the sly, sharp charm of Ilya. Hudson radiated the tightly-coiled intensity of Shane. And the slight awkwardness between them? It worked. Perfectly.
@heatedrivalrycrave I…oh. 👀 Watch the two-episode premiere of #HeatedRivalry Nov 28 on @cravecanada
Starting With a Bang — Literally
Most productions warm actors up slowly before intimacy. Not this one. On their first day of shooting, the boys jumped straight past small talk and into the iconic Las Vegas hotel hookup — vodka, tension, and all.
The raw footage features the two whispering between takes:
“You okay? Comfortable?”
“Yeah. You good?”
And it matters. Their trust becomes the backbone of scenes that are long, intimate, and emotionally revealing — the kind where every breath and fingertip says something.
A Story Told Through Sex — Not Decorated With It
Tierney defended the sheer amount of intimacy: the relationship spans eight years, and these two communicate through sex long before they dare speak their feelings. They meet up three times a year, have wild, emotionally charged hook-ups, and then run from the realization that this might be… more.
For Ilya, sex is effortless — identity, desire, emotion, none of it intimidates him. Romance? That’s where he short-circuits.
@lizcaldm i’m okay #heatedrivalry #mmromance #bl #ilyarozanov #shanehollander
Shane is the opposite: emotionally stable but inexperienced with men, making Ilya his first. Which is why Tierney stressed consent, comfort, and care in every scene. “Ilya might look like a carefree playboy,” he said, “but he’s actually a deeply empathetic lover.”
Their sex isn’t gratuitous — it’s their language. Their rhythm. Their slow-burn confession.
So… Where Can You Watch Heated Rivalry?
If all this steam has you ready to lace up your skates and binge, here’s the tea: The gay hockey drama is an HBO Max exclusive (in the US).
That means the only way to watch Heated Rivalry is by streaming it online through HBO Max — no cable broadcast, no reruns, no old-school TV airtime (at least not yet). So if you want the sweat, the rivalry, the hotel rooms, and the three-times-an-episode sex scenes… you know exactly where to go.
A Rivalry That Turns Into Something Much Hotter
By the time the feelings catch up to the lust — and oh, do they — Heated Rivalry has already taken viewers on a tour of emotional vulnerability wrapped in erotic tension. It’s a sports drama for the gays, the romantics, the slow-burn addicts, and anyone who’s ever wanted two enemies to just finally kiss already.
It’s sweaty. It’s intimate. It’s chaotic. And it’s one of the sexiest queer love stories to hit streaming in years.
REFERENCE: Teen Vogue