When Rob Stewart was a youngster with dreams of becoming a professional hockey player, he faced off against Wayne Gretzky.

Although the butt end of a stick in the kidneys curtailed his hockey career, playing against the Great One may have prepared him for stickhandling his way through an acting career.

Stewart, who was bitten by the entertainment bug while attending the University of Waterloo, is one of two Canadian co-stars in the crime drama Sweating Bullets, debuting Sept. 28 on Global.

Originally slotted in CBS's late-night Crime Time wheel last spring, the drama proved so successful the American network switched it to prime time last summer.

The show's popularity owes a great deal to the sex appeal of its two Canadian co-stars. While he rejects the label of beefcake, Stewart has become TV's newest heart-throb. Similarly, his attractive co-star Carolyn Dunn offers male viewers something pleasant to watch.

Stewart, who just turned 30, had stabs at a couple of TV shows before landing Sweating Bullets. He was the second choice for the Canadian hockey drama He Shoots, He Scores and he turned down the lead in the prime time sitcom Scoop, all of which may account for his modesty about the crime show's success.

"The ratings in the States have been good which is icing on the cake," Stewart acknowledges during a telephone chat from his parent's home in Brampton.

The drama teams Nick Slaughter (Stewart), an ex-mountie and U.S. drug agent who yearns for a life of leisure in the sun, with Sylvie Girard (Dunn), a failed travel consultant with a healthy dose of ambition.

Set in the Florida Keys, the show follows a recurring pattern each week. Slaughter is nicely settling into his carefree lifestyle when he is dragged into another case by his beautiful partner. The two bicker incessantly, concealing to no one but themselves their mutual attraction.

Stewart describes the love//hate antics between the two unlikely partners as the kind of relationship William Powell and Myrna Loy created in The Thin Man.

The drama's first 22 episodes, co-produced by Canada and Mexico, were shot on location in the resort of Puerto Vallarta - an experience Stewart enjoyed despite working 16 hours a day, six days a week for eight months.

"Mexico was an amazing experience. You really got a wonderful sense of the people."

The next series of episodes (beginning Oct. 15) will take him to Isreal for six months.

For obvious reasons, Stewart promotes the practice of Canada co-producing TV shows with other countries.

"A big complaint of Canadian actors used to be that producers wanted American stars in lead roles. But that's changing."

Stewart recalls his days in Kitchener-Waterloo with great fondness.

"I had a fabulous time there. I'm not saying this because it will appear in the paper, a lot of things started for me while I was there."

Stewart majored in Latin and English but began spending his spare time working for CKMS, the campus radio station, and Rogers Cable. He also performed folk music on weekends at a couple of former nightspots, Chadd's and Cafe Royale.

More importantly, he began a creative partnership with his cousin Jim Gordon, a writer on Sweating Bullets.

The team of Stewart and Gordon produced four low-budget TV movies - And No Birds Sing (1985), The Devlin Shoot (1986), Where There's a Will (1987) and Come Spy With Me (1988). Although the movies never amounted to much, they provided an excellent apprenticeship for the two men.

Stewart enjoys the creative freedom that comes with being both a writer and an actor. Which does he prefer?

"If you ask that question when I'm bogged down with a script, I prefer acting. But when I'm working from dawn to dusk on a set, I prefer writing."

Although launched on a promising career, he takes comfort in being able to write and direct as well as act.

"Acting is the most fickle of businesses. It's nice to have something to fall back on."

Although he may well be the next Tom Selleck or Don Johnson, Stewart remembers when things weren't so rosy.

"I didn't have two nickles to rub together for 10 years. This is my first real job."

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