Dan Ralph
The Canadian Press

MONTREAL - In the end, it was too much Henry Burris for the Montreal Alouettes to handle.

The West Division's outstanding player nominee proved Sunday he could win the big game, passing for 328 yards and a TD and running for a game-high 79 yards to rally the Calgary Stampeders to a 22-14 Grey Cup victory before 66,308 rabid spectators at Olympic Stadium.

He was named game MVP for his efforts.

Burris opened the game on fire, completing his first 11 passes before throwing a costly interception that set up a Montreal touchdown in the first quarter. But late in the first half, Burris used his feet to escape a heavy Alouettes pass rush to buy himself time and find Brett Ralph on a 20-yard TD strike with under a minute left to pull the Stampeders to within 13-10.

Then in the second half it was more of the same as Burris, who was the CFL's top-rushing quarterback this season with 595 yards, used his mobility to move the Stampeders downfield and put them in position to put the game away. But Demetris Summers and Nik Lewis both dropped TD passes and Calgary had to settle for three field goals for a 19-14 lead heading into the fourth.

Then again, as Burris went so did the Stampeders this year as the 10-year veteran established personal highs in yards passing (5,094) and touchdowns (39).

Burris spearheaded a balanced Calgary attack all season, one that boasted the CFL's top receiver in Ken-Yon Rambo (100 catches, 1,473 yards, eight TDs), its leading rusher in Joffrey Reynolds (1,310 yards) and top scorer in DeAngelis (217 points, 50 field goals).

The Als' defence had trouble containing Lewis, who had 11 catches for 122 yards.

But Burris got some much-needed support from a patient Calgary defence when it counted most. The Stamps recorded two second-half interceptions of Montreal's Anthony Calvillo, the CFL's outstanding player this year who had a league-high 43 TD passes and only 13 interceptions in 682 passing attempts.

Calvillo finished the game 29-of-38 passing for 352 yards and was sacked twice, an accomplishment considering Montreal gave up just 22 sacks all season.

Calgary's defensive scheme was to put its big, physical secondary in man-to-man coverage against Montreal, hoping to play bump-and-run against Montreal's receiving corps to disrupt the timing between the receivers and Calvillo.

Montreal effectively counter-attacked by going with a short passing attack and relying on its receivers to break tackles. But in the second half the Stamps' defence did a better job of wrapping up the Als pass catchers while playing tightly enough to force the two turnovers.

And with Montreal having the ball at its own 31 with 14 seconds left, the Stampeders' defence shut the down the Als, who coming into the game led the CFL in scoring (32.4 points per game), total yards (429 per game), pass attempts (712), completions (495) and passing percentage (69.5 per cent).