The grind for nine continues as the Montreal Alouettes are heading back to the Grey Cup looking to take care of some unfinished business. The Eastern champions will head to Calgary for next Sunday’s championship game, where they will face the Edmonton Elks, looking to avenge last year’s Grey Cup disappointment against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Montreal secured its place in the 113th Grey Cup with a grind of a 33-23 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Saturday’s Eastern Final before a sold-out crowd of 23,035 at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium. “I’m incredibly proud of us sticking together throughout, fighting to the very end, playing to our standard.,” Alouettes’ head coach Jason Maas said. “We knew it was going to be a battle going in. It got tight, and when it got tight, we came up with our biggest plays of the night. And that’s a moniker of a team. A championship grade team does that, and we’ve done it all year. Ten and zero sounds great. Now just got to go finish it in Calgary.”

Quarterback Davis Alexander, the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player completed 23 of 35 passes for 373 yards and two touchdowns. The second, a late game pass to Tyler Snead to seal the win.

Montreal built to a 10-0 first-quarter advantage. José Maltos Díaz opened the scoring with his first of four field goals, nailing a 40-yarder to make it 3-0. Running back Stevie Scott III powered through the final three-yards for a touchdown run, which was set-up by a 48-yard reception by Charleston Rambo that put the Alouettes in excellent field position.

Alexander found offensive lineman Donald Ventrelli for an eight-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter giving Ventrelli his second major of the season.

The Als carried their 23-10 lead into the second half, but the Bombers weren’t ready to call it a day. Winnipeg battled back in the second half behind quarterback Zach Collaros and running back Bryce Perkins, who scored twice on one-yard touchdown runs.

Sergio Castillo’s field goal early in the fourth quarter cut Montreal’s lead to just three points at 26-23. That had the Alouettes searching for a momentum swing and it came when linebacker Tyrice Beverette delivered the biggest play of the afternoon.

Winnipeg was on the march to potentially take the lead or tie the score until Beverette strip sacked the ball from Collaros late in the fourth quarter and recovered the loose ball himself. “That was a huge momentum swing when we needed it most,” Tyler Snead said. “Defence came up big and made a play. Beverette, he’s done it all year. He’s been a dog for us all year on defence, once we saw that, the momentum was right back with us. You give 10 (Alexander) the ball with time running out, and we need a play he’s going to make one, and that’s what we did.”

The Alouettes’ offence took advantage of the opportunity, putting together a drive that ended with a spectacular 21-yard touchdown reception by Tyler Snead with just 1:11 remaining. Maltos Díaz’s convert sealed the deal for the 33-23 win. “We ran a fake screen and go, and just I saw the ball in the air, and he (Alexander) put it where only I could get it, and I just had to go down there, drop low, and make sure I secured it.”

This will be Montreal’s third Grey Cup appearance in four seasons under head coach Jason Maas and gives the Alouettes a shot at the club’s ninth cup.

Last November, Montreal came up short against Saskatchewan in the Grey Cup, losing 25-17 in Vancouver. “Stopping short last year really hurt,” Tyson Philpt, the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian said. “I made a promise to myself. I was going to get back there and finish, and that’s what this team is built on.”