EDMONTON, Alberta -- Anthony Calvillo threw two touchdown passes, including a Grey Cup-record 99-yard toss to Pat Woodcock, as the Montreal Alouettes held off the Edmonton Eskimos 25-16 on Sunday for their first CFL championship in 25 years.

Edmonton nearly forced overtime on Ricky Ray's 17-yard touchdown pass to Ed Hervey on third down with less than a minute left to cut the deficit to 18-16. But Ray's pass to Terry Vaughn for the two-point conversion fell incomplete.

Edmonton attempted an on-side kick, but Jermaine Copeland returned it 47 yards for a touchdown to clinch the win for Montreal.

"It was a team effort,'' Calvillo said. "The defense played awesome. We struggled in the second half, but it was a team win.''

Calvillo, a finalist for the league's outstanding player and the game's MVP, quieted a Commonwealth Stadium crowd of 62,531 with a 47-yard touchdown strike to Copeland at 3:07 of the fourth to give Montreal an 18-10 lead.

It was the fifth title for Montreal coach Don Matthew, who made his league-record seventh appearance in the championship game. Matthews' fifth title tied him with Lew Hayman, Frank Clair and Hugh Campbell for the most in Grey Cup history.

Edmonton made its late comeback bid without John Avery, the CFL rushing leader who injured a hamstring last weekend. Avery, who played sparingly in the second half, left with 4 minutes remaining.

The Grey Cup win was the seventh for Montreal but its first since beating Edmonton 41-6 in 1977, when Alouettes players put staples into their shoes to get better traction on an icy Olympic Stadium turf.