Arash Madani

MONTREAL -- With 6:17 to play, they made the barely audible announcement inside a rammed Olympic Stadium. Anthony Calvillo’s four touchdown passes had tied a franchise record for a playoff game.

Six minutes and 17 seconds remaining before half-time, that is.

It should have been a given: with an extra week to prepare, rest and recharge, of course this is what you’d get from, undisputedly, the greatest quarterback in CFL history who owns just one championship ring. Just another November Sunday in the dome, going over the top at will throughout the afternoon as if the Lions were playing without a safety.

Fifty-six to 18. The Grey Cup awaits.

"Anthony," grinned his centre Bryan Chiu, while clutching his three-year-old son Teegan in the euphoria of victory, "is the heart and soul of our team."

He is and was yet again. Sunday, the beneficiaries were plenty: Brian Bratton barely had to work for his yards until the third quarter when he made a dazzling touchdown catch that allowed Calvillo to tie the league record for most touchdown passes (5) in a playoff game. Jamel Richardson had three grabs and two were for touchdowns by the break, about an hour of real time before he scooped up a blocked punt and waltzed into the end zone for the third time on the day.

And Kerry Watkins made the longest play of the day, the 90-yarder dancing by the Alouette sideline while a couple of B.C. defenders did their imitation of two-hand touch tackling.

"He’s good and effective every day," shrugged B.C. defensive end Brent Johnson of the quarterback who sliced through the Lions for 312 yards, only throwing for 100 in the second half when the game was long over.

Perhaps most critical, as the Alouettes take their streak of four consecutive Grey Cup losses into Calgary next week, was keeping their electric backfield healthy. Avon Cobourne only touched the ball twice in the first 30 minutes, 13 times by game’s end and proclaimed "I’m fresh" afterwards, what with not playing in the regular-season finale nor last week as Montreal had a bye thanks to the team’s club record-setting 15-3 campaign.

Kerry Carter had one carry, while Dahrran Diedrick got the rock three times. They’ll be needed -- Cobourne in particular -- on a cold winter’s night in southern Alberta next Sunday.

Beginning Tuesday evening when the Alouettes arrive in Calgary, Calvillo knows he will be dogged by the questions that have followed him over the past six years because of his 1-5 record in the title game. "What’s with the poor performances in Grey Cups?" … "You’ve done it all, but…" He’s aware they’re coming and he addressed the matter after the victory. But that’s the story for Wednesday and Thursday. And Friday and Saturday. And after Sunday if the mark becomes 1-6.

But it’s not the issue today. Not after that magnificent display before 53,792 at the Big O.

It was a masterpiece that was orchestrated by the old maestro, Calvillo, who seems to do this every fall, until the big prize hangs in the balance. For the seventh time this decade, Montreal is back in the Grey Cup. Of the years the Alouettes haven’t been there: 2001 was an organizational meltdown in the second half of the season. He wasn’t even in the mix late in 2007, having left the team to be with his wife, Alexia, who was battling cancer. In 2004, Calvillo was hurt in this same East Final in this same concrete jungle that doubles as a football stadium once or twice a year, and the Toronto Argonauts went on to win that game and the championship in Ottawa.

Sunday he was as good as he’s ever been in a playoff game. Ever.

"He made tremendous plays," said Als head coach Mark Trestman.

Known as a tireless worker, often the first player at the facility to watch tape and prepare himself for opponents, the fruits of his labour paid dividends early in knocking the Lions out of the 2009 dance.

Calvillo had spotted on film that in certain coverages, on specific down and distance situations, B.C. defensive backs would either bite on receivers underneath or simply blow their assignment.

With Montreal leading 24-10 on the series after a Lions touchdown in the second quarter, Calvillo faked a toss to Cobourne and rolled to his right. Before he launched downfield, he knew what was awaiting him over the top.

Trestman and his staff designed the play -- out of the shotgun -- where the quarterback extends the play to the outside and Bratton, if the safety bit on a receiver crossing on a shorter route over the middle, would be wide open on a post route.

Bratton wasn’t just open. There was nobody within 10 yards of him. Forty-five yards later, he was in the end zone: 31-10 Montreal.

Ballgame.

"We just went out, I read the defence and it was just how we drew it up," said Calvillo later. "It was pretty crazy. I just kept throwing it down the field and the guys were open.

"You have to make the right play call at the right time. When a defence makes a mistake, that’s when you want to take advantage and that’s what we did today."

A sickened Korey Banks was floored by the ease at which Calvillo flourished on those throws -- four, in particular, of course, for touchdowns by the time six minutes and change remained before the break.

"I know on one, he scrambled, converted deep, (and the receiver was) wide open. Then he scrambled again, converted deep, wide open," said the veteran B.C. defensive back, shaking his head on the field after.

Added Bratton: "We caught the safety flatfooted and that’s all she wrote."

You wonder when Calvillo may show his age. Is it right, is it fair for a guy to perform better at 37 than he did at 28 when he took the Als to their first Grey Cup of his reign as the franchise’s starting quarterback?

He told me this week that he’s never felt better physically. He said that he usually wakes up around 5 a.m. each morning -- to be at the facility long before the players are required to check in for meetings and practice -- and that in the past, he was usually going to bed around 8 or 9 p.m. No longer.

Last February he began a new workout regime with two personal trainers. They’ve changed his diet and he has altered how he mentally got ready for the season as well as his workouts. On Thursday, Calvillo explained how he sleeps less now -- not shutting it down until 11 p.m. or so -- but feels energized more than ever.

After the game Sunday, he told the media he felt he could play another game if needed.

"Last year I’d be so tired after a game. Not anymore. I really felt mentally sharp at the end," said Calvillo.

That, after a two-interception fourth quarter in this building a year ago in the Grey Cup loss to the Stampeders and the ridiculous double-pass at the end of the 2005 championship game, will be critical next Sunday.

As for the effort that gets them to Calgary, Trestman quite simply stated what became clear on an afternoon where the Alouette playoff record book was re-written: "I thought Anthony played like a champion today."