The Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa RedBlacks finished their Friday night matchup with a 26-26 tie from TD Place Stadium in the Nation’s Capital. It was the Stamps first tie since a 44-44 duel with the Saskatchewan Roughriders during the 2009 season.

“It doesn’t feel good for either team,” says head coach Dave Dickenson. “We still came in to a tough, tough building and played a great team and we had a lot of effort. I’m not going to fault that – the guys gave me everything they (had), which wasn’t our best football game and I’m sure they’ll say the same. There were a lot of mistakes.”

Early on, three straight completions to Greg Ellingson got the RedBlacks offence off to a hot start before a short Chris Williams crossing route put the first points on the board. The two-point conversion attempt was no good following the 10-play, 87-yard scoring drive.

Calgary would respond two possessions later with a 35-yard touchdown toss from Bo Levi Mitchell to Marquay McDaniel, although kicker Rene Paredes was wide left on his one-point convert try. As a result, the game remained tied with just over four minutes left in the opening quarter.

The TD pass from Mitchell set a new franchise record for the Stamps, as the third-year starter has now thrown at least one touchdown in 18 straight games.

When the Stampeders defence returned to the turf, Charleston Hughes stripped Ottawa QB Trevor Harris of the ball, enabling Micah Johnson to fall on the fumble.

Despite favourable field position to begin the series, Calgary was only able to muster a single point due to Paredes’ errant 39-yard field goal.

But the RedBlacks would quickly regain their early lead when Williams beat Fred Bennett out in the flat and raced down the sideline all alone with blazing speed. The 52-yard score gave Ottawa a five-point advantage.

It then went from bad to worse for the Stamps as Connor Williams tipped a Mitchell pass up in the air that David Hinds would haul in for his first career interception.

Returning the favour shortly thereafter was rookie defensive back Tommie Campbell of the Stampeders, picking off Harris in the end zone for the team’s first interception of 2016.

To close out the half, Paredes knocked through a chip-shot field goal to pull within three of the RedBlacks before heading to the locker room.

Mitchell went deep to Joe West for a 36-yard connection to begin the third, but Paredes would be forced to come on when the Calgary offence stalled in the red zone. The 27-yard boot was good to tie up the contest at 13 apiece.

A Nic Grigsby gallop of 21 yards shortly thereafter preceded Williams’ third major of the evening, breaking the deadlock in the process.

Bakari Grant, appearing in his first game for the Red and White, then picked up a combined 58 yards on back-to-back first downs to set up the game-tying touchdown. Coming out of the backfield just prior to the three-minute warning was Jerome Messam, who stretched across the goal line for a much-needed six points.

Three costly penalties – roughing the passer against Alex Singleton, a facemasking infraction assessed to Frank Beltre and an offside call on Hughes – enabled Ottawa to set up at the one-yard line with less than two minutes remaining.

However, Grigsby fumbled after receiving the handoff, and Joshua Bell was at the ready to scoop up the loose ball. Calgary could not capitalize before regulation time expired, though, as the two sides were off to overtime.

Chris Milo would do his part, nailing a 32-yard field goal, as did Paredes from the 42-yard line. A second and final mini-game then began after the opponents had each traded three points, and once successful field goals were swapped once again, the showdown concluded in a 26-26 stalemate.

The Stampeders have a Week 4 bye before heading to Winnipeg for another match-up with the Bombers on Thursday, July 21. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. MT.