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Stories the Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will face-off in a two-game hockey series are off-side, according to the Prime Minister's Office.

The next chapter in the Russian-Canadian hockey rivalry will not be written by the two leaders, said the Prime Minister's spokesman Andrew MacDougall.

The statement comes after the Toronto Star reported that Harper and Putin would square off in two exhibition games marking the 40th anniversary of the Canada-U.S.S.R. Summit Series.

The first game was reportedly scheduled for Sept. 7 in Moscow as Russia celebrates the series with a month-long event, while a second game was rumoured to be tentatively planned in Toronto on Sept. 28.

The Canada-U.S.S.R. Summit Series was an eight-game tournament that saw the two teams square off at the height of the Cold War. Canada lost three of the first five games before going on to win the series.

It has become a key page in the history of Canadian hockey and launched an on-ice rivalry that exists to this day.

Harper, 52, played three years of organized hockey as a child and has openly discussed writing a book about the history of the game.

Putin, 59, has only been playing hockey for a year and reportedly once saved a TV crew from a tiger attack.