Ticats wake up just in time to grab spot in CFL East final

It seems a tad silly to describe Sunday's CFL East semifinal as wild and crazy.

Based on a long history of CFL playoffs, that term is as redundant as referring to a Rob Ford video as shocking or a Henry Burris game as inconsistent.

But wild and crazy it was as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats advanced to next Sunday's East final with a come-from-behind 19-16 overtime win over the Montreal Alouettes at Alumni Stadium in Guelph, Ont.

There was something almost biblical about the setting. There was a gale-force wind, rain, sleet and everything but a plague of frogs. There was a bunch of turnovers, a bunch of missed field goals and some questionable coaching decisions with incredible defence and a few great plays mixed in for good measure.

In the end, there was a last-gasp 97-yard touchdown drive from an offence that appeared to have been given the last rites, a last-second field goal to send the game into overtime and the inevitable officiating controversy.

And to cap it off, rookie Hamilton second-string quarterback Dan LeFevour lined up in the shotgun at the Montreal two and ran up the middle for a touchdown that ended both the wildness and the craziness.

Let's get down to the facts first. With the wind howling downfield, most of the game was a mixture of wind-blown balls being pushed out of the reach of receivers, kicks almost going backwards or practically flying to Kitchener, little offence and an awful lot of buttery fingers losing control of the ball.

The Alouettes fumbled three times, the Ticats two. Quarterbacks Henry Burris and Troy Smith were both intercepted once.

The first half ended with a soccer score: 2-0 for Montreal. The points came on rouges, on plays that will only provide more fuel for those who believe that scoring play should forever be expunged from the CFL rulebook. Sean Whyte scored the first on a missed field goal while punter Burke Dales got the second on a wind-aided 62-yard single even though he was trying not to kick a single.

There was a relative explosion of points in the third -- a pair of Luca Congi field goals -- that gave Hamilton a 6-2 lead. That seemed to wake up the Alouettes, who reminded fans what a touchdown looks like when Smith engineered a 75-yard drive. He found rookie Duron Carter at the Hamilton two. The rookie made a spectacular catch and then reached across the goal line for the game's first major.

After that, the hard-hitting Montreal defence took over and Hamilton looked dead and buried as Burris simply couldn't get anything going. He underthrew receivers with the wind and overthrew them against the wind. Worse yet, Hamilton didn't seem to have a coherent offensive plan.

With Montreal controlling the ball thanks to running back Tyrell Sutton things looked pretty grim when another Dales single -- this one intended -- made it 10-6.

The fact that the Ticats were actually outscored in the third quarter even though they had a stiff wind at their backs made things look even darker.

Then, with 5:32 left, something completely unexpected happened. The Ticat offence, and Burris, came to life. The veteran drove the Ticats from their own 35 by spreading the offence and completing a series of short passes that exploited holes in the previously sound Montreal defence.

He capped it when all-but-ignored running back C.J. Gable made a diving catch, broke two tackles and ran 17 yards for Hamilton's first TD of the game with 1:04 left. But Smith drove the Als all the way to the Hamilton 25 with 10 seconds left.

That's where the controversy came in. Smith tried to hit Carter in the end zone, where Hamilton's Evan McCollough clearly interfered with the receiver. But no call was made and the Als settled for a Whyte field goal to send the game into overtime.

After Whyte kicked a 34-yard field goal in overtime, Burris and LeFevour did a tag-team quarterbacking thing to win the game. Starting from the 35, Burris threw passes while LeFevour ran, twice keeping the Ticats alive with short third-down gambles before scoring.

Montreal can take some solace in the fact that they came this close in a season that saw them lose some of their most experienced and talented players and make an in-season coaching change. But the knowledge that better placekicking and better performances by some of their veterans on Sunday might have sent them to the East final will haunt them all winter.

As for Hamilton, the way they won the game will boost their confidence heading into next week's game in Toronto. So will their back-to-back wins over the Argos last month.