MONTREAL - Larry Taylor returned two punts for touchdowns as the Montreal Alouettes earned a berth in the Grey Cup game with a 36-26 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos in the CFL East Division final on Saturday at Olympic Stadium.
Taylor, who had only one return TD in the regular season, ran one back 62 yards late in the first half, then brought the 38,102 spectators to their feet with a 97-yard runback in the fourth quarter.
His two punt return TDs was a CFL playoff record, as was his 202 yards in punt return yards for the game.
The Alouettes will play host to the Grey Cup game on Nov. 23 against the winner of the West Division final. They will be looking for their sixth Cup win in 16 trips to the championship game. It will be Montreal's sixth visit to the Grey Cup game since 2000.
With only 50 seconds left in the game, Tristan Jackson answered Taylor's performance with a 78-yard punt return for a touchdown to close the gap to 10 points, but a two-point convert attempt failed.
Jamel Richardson and Avon Cobourne also scored touchdowns and Damon Duval had a pair of field goals for Montreal, which fell behind 13-3 early and then scored 33 straight points.
Defensive lineman Justin Cooper and receiver Kelly Campbell had touchdowns and Noel Prefontaine kicked two field goals for the Eskimos, who made history last week by being the first "crossover" team from the west to win an East semifinal with a 29-21 win in Winnipeg.
The Alouettes defence had a strong game in limiting Edmonton quarterback Ricky Ray's pass attack until he found Campbell with a 55-yard TD strike 3:07 into the fourth quarter. Two late drives stalled inside the Montreal 30 and they turned the ball over on downs.
Quarterback Anthony Calvillo and the Alouettes overcame early nervousness to take a 19-13 half time lead.
Only 4:53 into the game, Cooper shot up the middle untouched to block a Duval punt, nudge the ball into the end zone and fall on it for the touchdown.
Montreal hit back with Duval's 27-yard field goal set up by a 24-yard catch by Avon Cobourne, but Prefontaine answered with placements of 45 and 22 yards early in the second quarter, the latter set up by a 54-yard toss to Kamau Peterson.
The Alouettes defence forced Edmonton to concede a safety and the home side took over the ball on its own 35. Calvillo then put together a drive capped by a seven-yard TD toss to Richardson.
Their next touch of the ball was by Taylor, who ran back a punt 62 yards to score with 1:24 left in the half.
The Eskimos ran the ball three times in the first half, all by A.J. Harris, for only three yards.
The Alouettes opened the second half with a 10-play TD drive with a bizarre ending. Backup quarterback Adrian McPherson took the ball in from the one, but referee Ken Lazaruk had neglected to turn off his remote microphone and it a screeched just before the snap, causing the Esks to stand up thinking it was a whistle.
They opted to replay the down and, two tries later, Cobourne dove in for the score.
Taylor broke the playoff punt return yardage record of 157 set in 1975 by another Alouette -- Johnny Rogers.
