Bizarre season continues

In what may have been the most bizarre regular-season in recent Canadian Football League history, perhaps it was only fitting that the most unpredictable team would pull off the most unlikely result.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats, capable of beating the B.C Lions late in the season when the Lions seemed invincible and then suffering consecutive losses to the two worst teams in the league, stopped the Montreal's bid for a third consecutive Grey Cup on Sunday.

The Ticats beat the Als 52-44 in overtime in the East Division Semi-Final in a game that Hamilton starting quarterback Kevin Glenn called a CFL classic.

Wiser words were never spoken.

The West Division Semi-Final lacked the same drama. If anything, it was downright dull. Edmonton scored a decisive 33-19 win at home over the Calgary Stampeders.

Between them, the Als and Stamps have won the last three Cups. The fact that both teams were early casualties is a continuation of the craziness of the regular season.

The Tiger-Cats-Alouettes game underlined the CFL's new slogan: No Lead Is Safe. The game had numerous lead changes and resembled a boxing match with two fighters exchanging punches and counterpunches. Hamilton won by recording a touchdown and a two-point conversion in the opening series in overtime, but Montreal couldn't even advance the chains on its ensuing drive.

Montreal's legendary quarterback Anthony Calvillo produced one of the best games of his glorious career, passing for 513 yards, second-most in post-season history. Calvillo who had one of the worst games of his career last week in a crushing loss to B.C., responded like the gallant warrior he has been throughout his career.

Whether or not Calvillo will decide to retire or come back for another season -- and clearly there will be some massive player personnel change in Montreal -- will surely be up to him. What is there left for the 39-year-old to prove, having already passed for more yards than any player in pro football history and setting various CFL records?

If this was his last game, he will have gone out with greatness.

The victory might have saved the job of embattled Hamilton head coach Marcel Bellefeuille, whose team had regressed this year, finishing third in the East after placing second last year. Bellefeuille's decision late in the season to platoon Glenn and backup Quinton Porter came under heavy criticism.

Glenn, who suggested what happened in the regular season had no bearing on the playoffs, played well, completing 23-of-32 passes for 275 yards. He had one touchdown pass and one interception. Porter spelled Glenn briefly because of an injury and completed both of his passing attempts, one of them for 34-yard touchdown..

The receiving corps, an evolving unit all season with different players, made huge plays, none more so than rookie Bakari Grant. He caught seven passes for 130 yards and a touchdown.

The running game produced 158 yards, including 97 from Avon Cobourne, the Cats' signature free-agent signing after Montreal decided to let him go. Cobourne had a 46-yard touchdown run on one of his rushes and also chipped in with 48 receiving yards.

Clearly he must've relished beating the team that decided it could move on without him.

The Ticats will travel to Winnipeg to play the Blue Bombers on Sunday in the Eastern Final. The Ticats will go into the game high on emotion and facing a team that struggled badly in the second half of the season.

The pressure will be squarely on the Bombers. One the main storylines in the game will be the revenge Glenn, who was run out of Winnipeg and found refuge in Hamilton in 2009.

Edmonton will face the Lions in Vancouver in the West Division Final. The Lions were the most dominant team in the CFL after starting off 0-5 and will be playing in the newly-renovated B.C. Place Stadium, which will surely be filled to the brim.

In two weeks, B.C. Place Stadium will be home to the Grey Cup. Standing in the Lions' way is a determined Edmonton team. This has been a turnaround season for the Eskimos, thanks to the rebuilding efforts from general manager Eric Tillman in his first full season and with a rookie head coach, Kavis Reed, whose pre-game speeches sound like something that would make Vince Lombardi proud.

Reed simply breathes passion. He may need to find something to inspire his troops because it looks as though they will be missing power running back Jerome Messam -- the key to their offence -- after he suffered a knee injury in the win over Calgary.

The Eskimos, co-ordinated on defence by Reed's mentor Rich Stubler, found a way to contain Stamps quarterback Drew Tate. Playing in his first playoff game, Tate's inexperience showed. He threw one interception, but it was fumble that Eskimos linebacker Damaso Munoz returned 77 yards for a touchdown that became the defining play in the game.

The Stamps pulled Tate in the second half in favour of the player he replaced as the starter late in the season, Henry Burris, but the veteran pivot could do little to generate anything on offence.

Burris faces an uncertain future because the Stamps will likely trade him in the off-season, most likely to Toronto; although there's been talk Winnipeg and Hamilton may have an interest.

What happens in the Eastern Final and beyond may have some influence on whether either of those teams will still have an interest.

A year ago Burris was voted the CFL's Most Outstanding Player, but his stock plummeted this season for no explicit reason.

It's been a bizarre year for Burris.

It's been equally bizarre for the CFL.

Perry Lefko keeps you connected to all the news in the CFL on Sportsnet.ca.