With Canadians basking in the glow of Olympic hockey glory - and still savouring Nova Scotia-born Sidney Crosby's overtime winner in Sunday's gold-medal match against the U.S. - two sports historians from Sweden have made a discovery that could cement the Maritime province's controversial claim to being the game's birthplace.

Researchers Patrick Houda and Carl Giden, members of the Canada-based Society for International Hockey Research, have unearthed a brief reference to an 1811 ice game played with skates, sticks and a ball on the frozen surface of Pictou Harbour in north-central Nova Scotia.

Now comes the zinger: The original source and central figure of what may now be Canada's earliest documented account of a hockey game is a muscle-bound 22-year-old Nova Scotian who defends his nation's honour in a dramatic showdown with an intimidating U.S. visitor to this country.

Sound familiar?...