Rating:

General Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandoms:

Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types

Relationship:

Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov

Characters:

Shane Hollander, Ilya Rozanov, Scott Hunter (Game Changers), Carter Vaughn, Hayden Pike, Cliff Marlow | Cliff Marleau

Additional Tags:

Hockey Fights, Social Media, Mentions of Real Hockey Players, Slight Cannon divergence, Most of them work from a timeline perspective, Some of them do not, Please don't judge me, It's mostly just the fans kinda catching on that the rivalry is a marketing thing, and that Hollanov are probably friends behind the scenes, tweets and images embedded, Fluff, Episode: s01e05 I'll Believe in Anything (Heated Rivalry)

Language:

English

Stats:

Published: 2026-04-18 Words: 9,751 Chapters: 1/1

Guard Your Man

Summary

In Hockey, when a fight breaks out, all other players pair off with a player on the opposite team to prevent anybody else from entering the fight. It's a form of self policing to prevent a 2 on 1. Players guard their man to stop unfair play.

Or

Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov always pair off during fights. It's apparently a tradition, and the fans can't get enough of it.

Notes

This all started with my own tumblr post and snowballed a lot.

Thank you to ao3 user @starskin for her work skin that allowed the tweets! So please make sure you allow for creator's style. (Although if there are accessibility issues I can be very easily convinced to do a second chapter with the exact same content and none of the HTML)

I am an AI hater through and through, and I can't draw, so enjoy my shitty photo edits of Shane and Ilya in actual screen caps from hockey games that I have watched (mostly Rangers games because I am for better or for worse a New York fan).

Fight number 1: October 2010

The first time Ilya is actually on the ice when a fight breaks out during his MLH career, is in a game against Montreal. They’re tied 1 to 1, and Boston has the puck in Montreal’s zone. If they can just get the puck to Ilya he has an opening to get them ahead. Unfortunately, the Boston Raiders are not that smart yet. They don't really know how to use Ilya, especially not against Shane Hollander. Instead of playing like actual professionals, an asshole D-man on Ilya’s line, Sorokin, decides to trip Montreal’s goalie in the crease. Ilya’s made some dirty plays, but he knows that you never mess with a goalie, especially not one as dramatic as Miitka. Miitka takes a dive, and Montreal’s captain immediately throws a punch.

It’s almost instinctive for Ilya to skate closer to the action, but before he can move an inch he feels something holding him back.

“Stay out of it, Rozanov,” Hollander whispers, just loud enough for Ilya to hear.

Ilya looks back at him, about to push off Hollander’s hand, when he sees Marleau and Pike holding each other against the boards. Across the ice, the rest of the linemen are paired off, watching the fight with various levels of interest. It seems this fight won’t escalate past a one on one. And Ilya knows there is a zero percent chance that hockey’s stupid golden boy is going to fight him.

The whole thing is relatively boring until Montreal’s captain lands a nasty punch to Sorokin's jaw. Ilya immediately smiles. Good. That dick may be on his team, but he needed to be taken down a peg. He might think he’s clever saying his bigoted bullshit in Russian, but Ilya knows everything that goes on in his locker room. One day Sorokin is going to cross a line, and Ilya will happily make sure everyone on the team gets their pound of flesh.

He finds himself laughing when he hears Hollander mumble “Jesus Christ,” at a particularly nasty hit. It’s the closest Hollander has ever come to cursing in public, and it’s the most delighted Ilya has ever felt in his presence.

The fight ends when Montreal’s captain knocks Sorokin’s tooth out. Ilya laughs, and Shane lets out an embarrassing yelp as the missing tooth skitters towards his skates. It makes Ilya laugh even harder.

The game continues normally, if a bit uneventfully, after the blood gets cleaned off the ice. With their best D-Man out for the rest of the game, Montreal (Shane Hollander specifically) is able bring the score up to 2-1, where it stays.

Ilya blames Sorokin and his stupid face for the loss. And, even though it makes no sense, he blames Sorokin for the fact that he doesn’t actually get to see Hollander after the game.

Fight number 2: November 2011

The fight breaks out less than a minute into the third. Shane is so focused on getting the puck from Rozanov that he’s not even really sure what started it. All he knows is that JJ is punching Connors, and people are starting to pair off. He and Rozanov are nowhere near the fight, but Rozanov still wraps his arm around Shane’s waist to keep him in place.

Shane bristles at the contact. It’s too familiar, especially in front of a sold out game. He tries to pull further away, back away from the fight so people know he isn’t trying to join the scrum, when Rozanov tightens his grip.

Shane flinches when Rozanov leans in closer.

“We will make this interesting yes? Whoever’s teammate wins gets to come first.”

Shane jerks back and stares at him. Rozanov simply offers him a sly grin.

JJ loses. It’s not even a contest.

Without JJ on the ice, the Raiders eke out a win.

Three hours later Shane can’t stay mad because he is having the single hottest sexual encounter of his entire life.

Fight Number 3: January 2012

Ilya knows that Carmichael is about to get punched in the face before it even happens. He had said something gross, but not particularly abnormal for a chirp, about Jackie Pike. Ilya knows exactly 3 things about Hayden pike: He’s somehow Hollander’s best friend, he’s, at best, the 15th ranked metros player, and he’s crazy about his wife. Even Ilya “Rage-Baiter Extraordinaire” Rozanov isn’t dumb enough to say anything about her to his face.

Hayden predictably drops his gloves, and packs a harder punch than Ilya expected. Within seconds everyone is pairing off. Ilya startles a little when Hollander skates over to him from more than 20 feet away, where he could conceivably pair off with Connors. He’s even more stunned when Hollander casually slings an arm across his shoulders.

They texted about this for hours the last time they paired off for a fight. Ilya had insisted that nobody would actually make the connection that they were fucking. It had staved off Hollander’s panic attack long enough for them to return to their stunted attempts at flirting, but he didn’t actually think Hollander would take it to heart. The man was apparently filled with surprises.

“Hollander,” Ilya says as a greeting, as they watch Pike land a pretty impressive punch.

“Rozanov,” Hollander says back. Ilya can hear the smug grin on his stupid hot face. “20 Bucks says Hayden wins.”

That catches Ilya so off guard that he bursts out laughing. So Mr Hockey wants to be funny. Ilya can work with that.

Pike does win the fight. But the Raiders still win the game.

Ilya doesn’t give Shane $20; he annoyingly doesn't even get to see him after the post-game press.

Fight number 4: December 2012

Shane knew exactly what his team had planned for this game. Last time they played Boston, Shane had been laid out. He was fine now, but his inability to move his wrist properly took him off the ice for a full game. He had kind of hoped that Theriault would put their 3rd line up for this, but he cared about ratings. And apparently, so did LeClaire.

Rozanov had skated up with a smug grin. “You going to play their stupid game Hollander? Or you plan on keeping your teeth.”

Shane just glared. He wasn’t going to let Rozanov get him riled up. Not in public at least. “I’m the only one on the ice who has all of them left.”

Rozanov grins at that. “Oh so the boring Canadian decides to be funny.” He taps his stick against Shane’s.

The ref skates up before Shane can respond, silencing both of them. Shane can feel the tension rising both on the ice, and in the stands. They all know it’s coming. Even the Refs look ready to skate away at a moments notice.

The puck drops, and Comeau flies for Marleau. JJ and Connors drop their gloves. Within seconds everyone is throwing punches, and crashing closer to center-ice. Even the goalies are slowly skating towards the fray. In a fit of self preservation (Shane really does not want to lose a tooth), and maybe the desire to not be punched by the guy he very much would like to spend a couple hours with tonight, Shane grabs Rozanov around the waist and yanks him towards the boards.

“Hollander what the fuck?”

“I’m not hitting you.”

“Is a fight on your behalf!” Rozanov is wiggling in his grip even as they slide further away from the scrum.

“I don’t care!” Shane shouts, right as Rozanov gets in his face. It's enough to jostle his helmet off.

The next moment could definitely be described as the weirdest moment of Shane’s hockey career so far. One second, they are nose to nose, probably looking to everyone in the audience like they are about to throw down, the next Rozanov is licking a stripe up the side of Shane’s face. It is so unexpected, and so unbelievably gross, that Shane laughs a little before he shoves Rozanov away as hard as he can.

“What the fuck?”

“Maybe you fight me now?” He was smiling. Not the stupid smug grin, but an actual genuine smile. God Shane wants to punch him.

“No!”

“So we play 1 v 1 when our lines get ejected? Maybe first time we get to play good hockey then.”

Shane feels his fists tighten against his will. But before he can move, the whistles pierce the air.

They are the only two who don’t get benched. Shane’s rage fuels a hat trick, which leads to a very satisfying win (one that probably would have been a lot more fun if he hadn't ended the night alone in a hotel room).

Fight number 5: March 2014

The fight was stupid, and boring, and stupid old Scott Hunter was holding Ilya back. Ilya stared blankly as St-Simon took a hit to the jaw. The other paired off players seemed to be watching in mild interest, but Ilya’s distracted, still thinking about Svetlana’s observations at the Olympics. Did Boston really have a shot at a cup this year? Could he FINALLY hold one over on stupid perfect Shane Hollander?

He’s so caught up he doesn’t catch what Scott Hunter says to him. He catches a joking tone, but not much else. “What?”

“I asked if you were going to lick me too?”

“Don’t worry. Is reserved for hot players only,” Ilya says blankly. It’s probably too much, too bold. Scott Hunter is, admittedly, a good hockey player because he’s perceptive. But it’s far kinder than anything else one of his teammates would have said, and as captain he is at least trying to foster a slightly less bigoted community.

“Fuck you, Rozanov.”

“Line is very long, sorry.”

“I bet the line to club you with a hockey stick is longer,” Scott mumbles under his breath.

Ilya fights to keep up his bored expression. The old man is deciding to be a little funny today. “Shane Hollander is first. Take it up with him.”

The fight breaks up shortly after that. And Ilya is able to drag a win out of Boston. A win that cinches their playoff spot, and dooms New York all in one go.

Fight Number 6: December 2014

Shane knows that Ilya is the one grabbing him before he even has to look. Every single fight between a Boston player and a Montreal player goes the same way. Shane smiles at the familiar feeling of Ilya’s arm resting on his shoulder. JJ and Connors are fighting yet again, and the only people who don’t seem particularly bored by it are the goalies.

“Rozanov,” Shane greets, feeling the corners of his mouth twitch up ever so slightly, “fancy seeing you here.”

“Is tradition at this point, yes?”

Shane’s smile turns into wince when JJ’s helmet flies across the ice, but that seems to be as dramatic as this is going to get.

“We should start a fight,” Ilya says after another lack-luster punch from JJ.

“What?” Confusion ripples through Shane. He's aware that after the summer their texting has been more playful, but this actually feels like a joke that Shane is supposed to be in on for once.

“We should start our own fight. Would be far more entertaining, and I want a Gordie Howe.”

Shane actually laughs at that. Ilya only has an assist to his name right now. It may have been a magnificent pass but 1/3 is a far cry from a hat trick of any kind. “You would need to score for that Rozanov.”

“Is only second period. I have plenty of time.” Ilya playfully shoves Shane. “This counts.”

Shane holds his ground, but fails to stifle a laugh at Ilya’s baiting nudges. His laugh, seems to set off Ilya too. They stay like that for the rest of the fight, smiling, and gently shoving each other.

Ilya does end up scoring on the next play, tying the game. He finishes out his Gordie Howe while Shane is in the box for goalie interference.

Shane's score after the game is a hell of a lot more memorable though.

ESPN Transcript:
Miller: In a game that seemed scripted to be as entertaining as humanly possible, you’d think the fans would actually talk about the hockey. 6 - 5 is an unprecedented score, with Hollander getting a hat trick, and Marleau getting 2 goals within 1 minute of each other.
Callahan: Or at least you’d think they’d talk about one of the three fights. But no, all eyes are on Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander laughing with each other in the background.
Miller: According to eagle eyed fans, it seems that Rozanov was trying to bait Shane into a fight, saying he wanted a Gordie Howe
[Entire panel laughs.]
Callahan: I think Rozanov is barking up the wrong tree with Hollander.
Wells: Try saying that to Scott Hunter and see how he feels.
Johansson: We talk a lot about the rivalry between Hollander and Rozanov, but it is nice to know that off the ice the two seem friendly. It’s lonely at the top, especially for players that young.

Fight Number 7: February 2015

Goalies don’t fight. They will drop their gloves as a threatening joke, or shove people in defense, but they don’t just start punching each other. Ilya likes to joke that that is the only reason he isn’t a goalie. In fact, the last goalie fight recorded on Boston’s Ice was when Ilya was 3, and the last one in the league was 2 years ago between New Jersey and New York in an all out scrum.

Tonight the goalies are at center ice brawling, so for the first time all season, Ilya is watching the fight. Everyone on the team is. He’s vaguely aware that Shane is there with an arm slung around his waist, but that’s more background noise than anything else. Until Shane, boring hockey robot Shane, shouts “Go for the knees!”

It pulls Ilya’s attention from the fight for a moment. Then, as if everyone was just waiting for permission, the chirps and yells start echoing from across the ice. Garbled yells of things like “Bite him!”, “Go for the Jaw.”, “Kill his ass!”, and “Fuck him up!” fly directly towards the goalies, egging them on even more. For the first time in a while, a fight that Ilya isn’t a part of is exhilarating. So he shouts along with them, and lets the levity he feels last well after Shane leaves his bed.

Fight Number 8: March 2015

Shane just wanted this fight to be over so they could play some actual fucking hockey. Comeau had said something, probably something homophobic, or racist, or gross, and got himself punched. It had to have been bad considering Carter Vaughn was doing the punching. Carter is nice, probably the nicest person that Shane has met in the league. He's always quick with a smile, sportsman like, and genuine. He’d even pulled Shane aside his rookie year to let him know that if the diversity questions (or micro-aggressions passing as “kind” comments) got to be too much, he could always reach out. It takes a lot to get him to fight on his own behalf. So Comeau had to have said somethng bad.

Shane is being guarded by Scott Hunter, who looks just as annoyed with this as Shane feels. They stay silent until the refs finally break the fight up and give their penalty assessments.

“Hollander, call off your fucking dog,” Scott Hunter says, not making eye contact.

“You think I haven’t tried?”

“You’re the captain, kid. Try harder.” Scott Hunter skates away after that.

Shane has no intentions of getting in a fight on the ice. But he might need to get into one on the locker room once he finds out what Comeau actually said.

Fight number 9: January 2016

Ilya and Shane are behind the net when an all out brawl breaks out. It’s a tangle of limbs and uniforms inching closer and closer to the net, making Miitka look like a bug trapped under a cup. They're also inching closer to Ilya, who has no intentions of injuring himself when he has a whole 8 hours to spend with Shane later tonight.

In his attempt to escape the fray, he ends up skating directly towards Shane, who catches him with open arms. A small part of his brain begins screaming that this is the first time they’ve hugged. 6 years of sleeping together and their first hug is an over dramatic slam to get out of a fight.

Shane hits the boards with a soft 'oof' but is able to keep them both upright. “Jesus Christ, this is ridiculous.”

Ilya smiles. Shane could be talking about pretty much anything at the moment, and he would be right. They watch the rest of the fight like that, holding on to each other so they don’t get dragged into the mass of players.

They’re the only two people on the ice who don’t end up getting ejected from the game. And the refs still won’t let them play a one on one!

Fight Number 10: December 2016

Shane doesn't fucking understand. He knows he and Ilya aren't doing this any more. He knows that he's happy spending time with Rose. He knows that this is a stupid fucking fight between two rookies in the middle of a boring and bad game with zero points on the board.

So, why is he so heartbroken that Ilya is paired up with Hayden, of all people, when they're standing only 10 feet apart? Why does seeing Ilya's blank stare make Shane want to scream?

Why does it hurt this much to be doing the correct thing?

Fight Number 11: January 2017

The All Star game is supposed to be for fun. The older guys had told Ilya not to fight his first year, and he listened. He's been to every All Star since his rookie season, and he hasn't seen a fight break out.

But right now, 7 All Star games later, the Tavenir brothers are fighting. They're clearly having the time of their lives punching each other, seeing as both of them have bloody smiles on their faces. This is the first season in their careers where they are playing against each other, and they've been taking full advantage of that fact. The All Star Game is apparently no different.

Players start to pair off, and Ilya doesn't even think as he skates towards Shane and wraps his arms around him.

Shane gives Ilya the same bashful look that he did when Ilya kissed his helmet earlier. It makes him want to say his room number right then and there. Now that he knows what that word 'compatible' means for sure, he knows he has a shot.

Somebody from further down the ice, their goalie from New York, shouts at them, "Hey assholes! You're supposed to tie up people from the OTHER team."

Shane breaks out into a blinding grin. Fuck he's beautiful.

"Sorry Hank!" Shane shouts back, not bothering to push away from Ilya, "Force of habit!"

Hank laughs in response, but lets them be. Part of Ilya knows that what they are doing is bad etiquette, but he always guards Shane. He's Ilya's man, not anyone else's.

Ilya looks up from Shane's freckles to see two players from the West team leaning against the bords. Ilya is pretty sure that they played on the same line in the juniors, and are 'rivals' now. They seem to be fine guarding each other.

Smith, the player from LA, looks back at Ilya and laughs. "Don't worry dude, nobody's gonna take him from you."

The sarcastic comment about Rose Landry is on the tip of his tongue. But Shane laughs again, and that's all Ilya can even think about.

Fight number 12: February 2017

JJ and Connors are fighting yet again, and Shane is about 10 seconds away from asking if it’s over a girl. There has to be something to this. It’s not like their fake rivalry is a major selling point for the sport or anything. Ilya skates up to him from half way across the rink with a smile, casually pinning him against the boards. It feels more like the cellies from the All-Star game than guarding a man for a fight. The whole thing makes Shane kind of giddy.

“You think they are trying to be better rivals than us?” Ilya asks.

“I think it might be over a girl.”

“Boring answer. Just like this fight.” Ilya takes off his glove, making Shane think that he is going to try to get his Gordie Howe again. Instead Ilya shakes his fist lightly. “Scissors, paper, rock.”

Shane laughs, a genuine belly laugh, because Ilya is wonderful and Shane can actually finally admit that to himself. “Ok.”

Ilya wins round one and two, but Shane soon figures out that Ilya has some semblance pattern. Soon they are 11-6 Shane, and other players are taking notice. Marleau is laughing at them. A Boston rookie has convinced Hayden to play sticks with him, and the goalies seem to be playing I-Spy across the ice. The whole thing is so childish, and so much fun. Shane likes having fun with Ilya.

The fight gets broken up when Ilya wins his 10th game. “Now I go score the same number of goals.”

“You’re such an asshole.”

“Yes, is why you like me.”

Shane can’t help the smile on his face as Ilya skates away. Hayden simply rolls his eyes at Shane's goofy expression.

“The fight was really that boring to you?” Hayden asks, as if he had been paying any attention at all. He starts pulling Shane back to their face-off positions.

“Aren’t they always?”

Hayden looks over to JJ, who is still fighting with Connors through the walls of the penalty box. “It has to be over a girl right?”

“Definitely,” Shane agrees, staring past Hayden at the Boston bench. He has a flash thought about the end of the season. Maybe Ilya would like to stay state side for a little bit before going home to Russia.

Fight number 13: April 2017

Ilya is aware that Pike started the fight by charging at Marleau. The brawl breaking out is happening more in his periphery. All he cares about right now is getting to Shane, even if it means mowing over a ref or paramedic to do it.

He’s seen Shane get hit before. Fuck, he had been on the ice when Shane took a dive and sprained his wrist a couple of years ago. But, all of those times Shane got up. Right now Shane is lying on the ice and he’s not fucking moving. The brawling is happening around Ilya, and all he can do is try to guard his man.

He makes it to Shane before the paramedics get there, and Shane still isn’t fucking moving. Ilya wants to scream. Instead he starts begging. “Shane. Shane get up.”

A minute passes, and Shane still doesn’t move. “Shane are you ok! Shane!”

The paramedics come out, and Ilya has the insane thought that he needs to block them.

“Rozanov out of the way.”

“Is he ok?” Ilya shouts, not moving from his spot next to Shane.

The paramedic actually pushes him, forcing him to skate back. “Back to your bench Rozanov!”

“Just tell me if he’s fucking OK! Please. PLEASE! Shane!”

Eventually he's close enough to the bench for somebody to reach out and pull him in by the back of the Jersey. Ilya really doesn’t care who.

“Roz, are you ok?” LeClaire asks, putting a hand on Ilya’s shoulder. It sounds distracted. Probably because all eyes are still on Shane Hollander being pulled off of the ice on the fucking back board.

“They won’t tell me anything,” Ilya whispers. It's too emotional, too much. LeClaire can probably tell that Ilya's heart is smashed on the ice right where Shane got hit.

LeClaire sighs. “I’m going to make a phone call.”

Ilya figures out, later, after he’s seen the love of his life in a hospital bed laughing and asking about the cottage, that LeClaire is the reason he’s an approved visitor. He’ll make sure to thank him later, when the earth starts spinning at a normal speed again.