It really could not be scripted any better, a final between Russia and the US in the ice sledge hockey competition at the Sochi Winter Paralympics in what, especially in this part of the world, is regarded as the showpiece event of the Games.
Alpine skiing's downhill race has the historical prestige, being a foundation sport of the Winter Games - and there is no denying the bravery of the men and women with a variety of disabilities who hurtle down the treacherous Rosa Khutor slopes at almost 130km/h.
But it is hard to go past ice sledge hockey's sheer passion, both on the rink, highlighted by the Cold War intensity of Russia's 2-1 win over the US in the round-robin games, and in the stands which are pumping with patriotism and feisty vibes that are helped along by cheerleaders and a bag-pipe band blowing out favourites such as Queen's We Will Rock You and AC/DC's Thunderstruck.
The action is brutal. In the realm of Summer Paralympic sports, wheelchair rugby revels in the notoriety of its nickname of ''Murderball''. But even the collisions seen in that sport cannot match the ferocity and intent on the ice, where the players appear to want to hurt each other, although they often serve a two-minute penalty off the ice as a result.
"It's not a game for sissies," says Mike Doyle, a member of the American team at the 1998 Nagano Games.
Doyle is a former Paralympic swimmer who took up ice sledge hockey in the mid-1990s when the sport was still obscure in America.
"If you were fit and could skate and push a sled around, you were on the national team automatically," he said. "The program wasn't developed enough to have the fittest players in the country playing sled hockey, so it was a matter of getting 12 guys together who could suit up and play.
"Most of us didn't know a lot about hockey. It was more of a fitness thing and we were learning from some of the early coaches and things like that. It was a stepping stone and from 1998 we went from sixth place ... [to] a gold medal in 2002."
Doyle has seen and has been a driver in the expansion of the game, which was developed in Sweden in the 1960s. The players, who have physical disabilities to the lower half of their bodies, such as loss of legs or paraplegia, are still largely part-timers with regular jobs or are studying, but with the sport growing in popularity and skill, the sporting needs were also becoming greater.
The players need substantial upper body and core strength to get the maximum speed when they push off with hand-held sticks that have spikes on one end of the handle to grip the ice and take the impact of the hits.
"You can't just take someone and put them in a sledge and six months later they're in the Paralympic team," said Doyle, who still plays the game.
"It takes years of development of a player to go to that level, whether you're fit or not, and you have to take it seriously, you're skating three or four times a week and you're in the weights room ... it's not a once a week activity or you'll never make it to the high level."
Doyle believes it's a game that Australians would take to and Australian Paralympic Committee chief executive Jason Hellwig agrees.
Hellwig said it could be possible for Australia to have a Paralympic team within 12 years if a financial backer could be found to establish a local league and develop career pathways into the national team.
But he said the financial task would be too great for the APC to undertake, although it would be willing to provide support where needed.
"The opportunity I think is real and I've got no doubt that it's a sport that would appeal to Australians ... but getting that critical mass of resource funding and people is always difficult, but every sport's got to start somewhere, so why not," Hellwig said.
"At the moment I think nine of the Para-programs in Australia operate on budgets of less than $500,000 a year, so we've got some major challenges.
"I certainly don't want to be seen to be giving an impression that we're going to be prioritising ice sledge hockey, but I don't want to give an impression that we don't think it's a sport that has potential. I think it absolutely does and you just never know, in 2028 or 2032, why not have a dream of seeing an Australian ice sledge hockey team doing something pretty good."
The biggest games at Shayba Arena in Sochi have been attracting significant interest, especially those involving home country Russia, which has within four years built a team from scratch that will now challenge for the gold medal.
The feeling out of the US camp is that it was unlucky in the earlier 2-1 loss to Russia, and the young American team, which includes Brody Roybal, 15, and Declan Farmer, 16, will be confident of defending its title after beating world champion Canada 3-0 in Thursday night's semi-final.
"I think we played a great game [against Russia] ... It just turned out that it didn't happen the way we wanted it to,'' American forward Nikko Landeros said after the semi-final.
But for Russia, the final on Sunday morning (Australian time) could, according to Russian coach Ergey Samoylov, will be just the beginning of the team's ride.
"You can't go anywhere without a dream. You need to have a dream," he said.
"Four years ago, when the guys got into the sledge, when they had the sticks and pucks in their hands, it was [squad member] Vadim Selyukin, who told me, 'We will do everything we can, we will play at our best and be very hard-working guys. We will compete at the Winter Paralympics, not just as hosts, we are going to do much more. We are going to win. We are going to win a medal'.
"I did not believe him, I can tell you frankly. I said, 'Vadim, relax, it can't be true'. He is a Nostradamus as well. He is probably the one to predict the future."
