BY MARK SPECTOR
sportsnet.ca

CALGARY — Whether the Saskatchewan Roughriders simply got the breaks — or made their own — was a matter for some discussion in southern Alberta Sunday evening.

But you can’t say this organization didn’t have some good luck coming, after the way they lost here at McMahon Stadium 51 weeks ago, a Grey Cup flop for the annals.

Yes Edmonton, the Saskatchewan Roughriders and their infamous 13th man — no, not THAT 13th man — are coming to town. After a rugged, arctic battle with the Calgary Stampeders Sunday, it’s a do-over for the 98th Grey Cup at Commonwealth Stadium next Sunday:

Montreal vs. Saskatchewan II.The Recount.

"To get this rematch against a team that we feel basically stole a ring from us, is a great feeling," said quarterback Darian Durant, who was on the sidelines last November when the Riders took that infamous too-many-men penalty with 0:00 on the clock last season, allowing David Duval to tee it up again for the Cup-winning field goal.

"I am amazed," said Rider DB Lance Frazier. "This is my third championship game in four years and I don't know too many guys that can say that at all, in any profession. It's a blessing, man. God is good."

This was the rarest of West Finals, where Calgary and Saskatchewan combined for just a single point in the fourth quarter and the Riders hanging on for the 20-16 win.

It was minus-17 at kickoff with an 11-kmh wind, spirit-breaking weather that neither team gave in to. The West’s two best clubs met for the second year in this game and as the quarters passed, neither team seeming to waiver.

It began to smell very much like a game that would be decided on one big play.

Then, with 3:11 to play in a four-point game, Calgary’s Burke Dales punted the ball to Ryan Grice-Mullen, standing inside the Saskatchewan 20. As the ball ricocheted off of Grice-Mullen’s hands and on to the turf, Calgary’s break had arrived on cue.

A half-dozen special teamers from both sides, their fingers frozen and traction poor, began chasing after the ball like it was a greased pig round-up.

It looked like a football, yet in reality that was the Grey Cup bouncing down the field, over the goal line and into the end zone, just inches from Wes Lysack’s grasp.

"The ball’s all over the place," said the Calgary DB. "I slid out for the football, the ball was sliding, it slid into the end zone… It’s the story for us: There is three of us around the football and one of them, and they get the football."

Out of the ether, came Saskatchewan linebacker Jerrell Freeman. He leapt on the ball, a football that the Stampeders offence would never again touch Sunday, as another fine Stamps seasons ends short of the hardware.

"You make your own breaks. You make your own luck out there," countered Freeman. "It was a turning point. But coaches always say you’ve gotta finish plays. I saw Grice-Mullen drop that ball and saw it on the ground, I said, "'You gotta finish this play. You gotta go get that thing.’"

Alas, this game wasn’t lost on fluke, or won by some Grace of God.

Calgary, the best team in the CFL this season, helped Saskatchewan to be the better team by taking 13 penalties to Saskatchewan’s five. After a season of big plays, the Stamps failed to find nearly enough of those to lay claim to a game that was ultimately winnable right to the end by either club.

"We just didn’t get it done today. It’s really sad … it’s pitiful," said receiver Nik Lewis.

Was it the worst playoff loss of this seven-year Stamp’s time in Calgary?

"Shoot — the playoff losses are starting to add up. I can’t remember which one is the worst," he said. "You do what you’re supposed to do for 18 weeks, then come and play like this?"

"Where we’re at, the football team we think we are," Lysack added, "we’re kidding ourselves if we need a guy to bobble a punt return to win a football game. There were so many points earlier in that game where we should have taken off with the game."

It was the Roughriders, who ultimately hung around long enough to prevail. They made fewer mistakes and no one knows better than an Alouettes fan, sometimes that’s all it takes.

Now, Rider Nation gets to hang around for another week in Alberta, where the Roughriders will play so much better locally than the hatred red southerners would have.

And the way that Montreal-Saskatchewan Grey Cup ended last season?

You might hear that referred to once or twice this week.

It’s Just a hunch.