ALOUETTES 25, Eskimos 16

EDMONTON (CP) -- Another Grey Cup nail-biter.

"That bit at the end was certainly a little hairy," said Montreal head coach Don Matthews after his Alouettes staved off a late Edmonton comeback for a 25-16 win Sunday.
 

Edmonton tried the onside kick, but Jeremaine Copeland returned it 47 yards for a touchdown to clinch the win for Montreal, his second TD of the game.

It was a record-tying fifth CFL championship as head coach for Matthews, who appeared in his record seventh Grey Cup.

The Grey Cup win was the seventh for Montreal but its first since downing Edmonton 41-6 in 1977, when Marv Levy was coach. Alouettes players put staples into their shoes that game to get better traction on an icy Olympic Stadium turf.

And 25 years later, the field was again a big factor.

Players ran very gingerly on the frozen grass, which made it difficult for players to dig in their cleats and gain any traction. And while the contest was close, it was hardly a Grey Cup classic.

"It was tough," said Montreal quarterback Anthony Calvillo, named the game's MVP. "It wasn't an advantage for them being on their home field, they were slipping just like we were.

"I think it slowed down the running game because people were slipping all around but it's something we had to deal with."

Calvillo threw two touchdown passes -- including a Grey Cup-record 99-yard ttoss to Pat Woodcock.

Calvillo completed just 11 of 31 passes for 260 yards. But in a game that featured six turnovers, 16 penalties, two blocked kicks and many lost opportunities by both sides, Calvillo had no interceptions despite playing with his right ankle frozen after injuring it last week in the East Division final.

"I always told myself I would never do it (freeze ankle) unless it was a championship game and that was presented before me so that's what I did to help this team win," Calvillo said afterwards, his eight-year-old nephew, Mario, sitting on his lap. "To finally win it is an awesome feeling."

"I haven't played well enough to help our team win (in past playoffs) but that is something you learn from. This was another opportunity for me to play in a Grey Cup and I played well enough to help this team win."

Woodcock, a native of Ottawa, was named outstanding Canadian after making two catches for 118 yards.

"The chance to make a play like that in a game like this that I have watched so many times growing up is the most exciting thing I can think of," Woodcock said. "This is the biggest day of the year for a football fan in Canada."

Calvillo, a finalist for the CFL's outstanding player this year, quieted a Commonwealth Stadium packed with 62,531 fans -- 2,100 more than capacity -- with a 47-yard touchdown strike to Copeland at 3:07 of the fourth. That gave Montreal an 18-10 lead.

Both teams were shaky early, largely because of the field conditions.

The field conditions affected Edmonton's John Avery and Montreal's Lawrence Phillips, two of the CFL's top running backs. Neither Avery, who rushed for a league-high 1,448 yards, nor Phillips, who ran for 1,022 yards, were effective on the slick field. Avery ran for six yards on eight carries while Phillips had 40 yards.

Then again, Avery and Lawrence played Sunday despite suffering hamstring and knee injuries, respectively, last week. In fact, Avery left the field with four minutes remaining to play.

"He wasn't himself," Eskimos coach Tom Higgins said. "He was heroic but maybe we left him in there too long."

Still, the slick surface didn't stop Woodcock from taking a Calvillo pass 99 yards in the second.

Despite the conditions, Montreal's game plan was to throw the ball and challenge Edmonton's secondary.

"Last week against Toronto we were very conservative," Calvillo said. "We wanted to get back to our bread and butter, which was spreading everyone out and throwing the ball.

"It's something that has been successful all season for us."

Phillips broke his silence following the win.

"It's excellent," the former Nebraska star said in a post-game interview with CBC. "It's the biggest cup you can win in professional sport.

"Our team came out at the beginning of the season and said this is what we wanted to do and we came out and did it today."

Higgins said afterwards veteran kicker Sean Fleming played despite suffering a thigh injury in practice earlier this week. The ailment limited Fleming's field-goal range to just 37 yards.

"And that was on the long side," Higgins said.

Fleming finished with a convert and field goal.

Montreal's Terry Baker, playing in the final game of his 16-year CFL career, added a single, three converts and field goal.

Matthews' fifth Cup win tied him with Lew Hayman, Frank Clair and Hugh Campbell for the most in Grey Cup history. It was the 10th of his CFL career -- Matthews' first five came as an assistant with Edmonton (1978-'82).

Edmonton was looking for its 11th Grey Cup title but first since '93.

Edmonton made a game of it in the third, pulling to within 11-10 on Ray's 17-yard TD strike to Walter and Fleming's 13-yard field goal. The Eskimos nearly went ahead late in the quarter, but Ray missed a wide-open Chris Brazzell, who would have scored easily.

"The one that stands out in my mind is the one over the middle with Brazzell," Higgins said. "I wish I had (a reason for Edmonton's slow start) because if I did we would have been able to adjust earlier.

"We just didn't seem to be able to click and make play."

The on-field entertainment wasn't limited to just football.

Star singer Shania Twain performed two songs from her new album Up! to add some star power to a halftime show that also featured the presentation of a $6.49-million cheque to a lucky winner as part of a CFL promotion with Lotto 649.

A close exciting Grey Cup was a fitting conclusion to a solid season that saw the CFL's television ratings soar (27 per cent increase on TSN and 19 per cent on CBC).

For the first time in a while, the CFL heads into the off-season without any major concerns. It has a new commissioner (Tom Wright, who was hired Saturday) and there is a sense of optimism in Toronto, where the Argonauts registered their first playoff berth in three years. But both the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and B.C. Lions continue to struggle at the gate.

NOTES -- Meredith McLeod, a 19-year-old local university student, sang the French version of O Canada prior to the opening kickoff, to a rousing ovation. Adam Gregory, a rising country star, was originally to sing the anthem in English only, causing a stir in Quebec with Montreal in the game. On Saturday, Cup organizers announced recruited McLeod ...Actress-comedian Mary Walsh was dressed as her alter-ego Marg Delahunty at Sunday's game.