THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL - No one wears a bigger smile on the Montreal Alouettes these days than kicker Damon Duval.

For Duval, the ordeal of passing two kidney stones at the end of the regular season was much worse than, say, having to kick a pressure field goal in the Grey Cup game against the Calgary Stampeders on Sunday (TSN, 6 p.m. ET).

Now that it's over, everything feels good to the fourth-year punter and placekicker.

"It's very painful; it wasn't fun," Duval said this week. "They've actually done studies on pregnant women who have had natural childbirth and kidney stones and they said the kidney stones were just as painful.

"But what hurts is there's no let-up of the pain. It's constant. If you get a bruise, it hurts, but then it doesn't, but it you hit it again and it does. This is just constant. You can't get comfortable. I couldn't sleep very well because it was always hurting. But once they're gone, it's like night and day, like nothing ever happened."

The Alouettes were only two days away from their final game of the regular season on Oct. 31 in Edmonton when Duval found he was urinating blood. Tests at a Montreal hospital showed two tiny kidney stones.

All he could do was drink a lot of fluids and wait for them pass.

The bleeding had stopped by Friday, but it caused him to miss the game. General manager Jim Popp scrambled to sign and bring in kicker D.J. Fitzpatrick from the United States to fill in for one game.

Three days later, Duval was fine and he was able to kick as the Alouettes defeated Edmonton 36-26 in the East Division final last week.

"It's unbelievable that something so small can cause so much pain," he said. "They're not even a third of the size of a BB."

Missing the game may have cost Duval the league scoring lead. He and his opposite in Sunday's game, Calgary's Sandro DeAngelis, were tied at 206 points in the final week, but with Duval out, DeAngelis got it with 217. Duval had a career high in points just the same.

"I'm just happy I was able to come back and play in the (division) final, and now I have an opportunity to get a Grey Cup ring," he said.

The 28-year-old from Morgan City, La., led the CFL in scoring in 2005, set an Alouettes record with 51 field goals in 2006 and was a league all-star last season.

This year, he was a so-so 44-for-53 in field goals, but remained in the top three in punting average.

His numbers make him a keeper, so he does not need to pull family strings to stay around. Duval is married to Alouettes president Larry Smith's daughter Ashley and the couple have two young children, although he says his father-in-law is so competitive he would axe him in minute if his kicking dropped off too far.

Nowhere is a kicker's worth more evident than in a championship game. He and DeAngelis will have their reputations on the line on Sunday.

"I look at my previous experiences, playing at a university (Auburn) where we played in front of 85,000 to 100,000 people a week and being in situations where I had to kick the game-winner against Florida, who were No. 1 at the time," he said.

"You can't step on the field and have a doubt. If you're nervous about kicking, you might as well not kick the ball. You've already missed. The key is to zone out. It's just like a golfer stepping into the tee box on the PGA Tour and having everyone standing 10 feet away from him. You just block it out and take care of your job."

It will be a third Grey Cup game for Duval, having played on losing Montreal teams in 2005 and 2006. He hopes third time is lucky.

"I told my wife after training camp that since I started here in 2005, this is the year," he said. "With the coaching staff that came in, with the players we have, the attitude, it just seems like this was the best.

"It's still not the most talented, but collectively, it's the best team we've had since I've been here and it's the best shot to get to this game and win it at home. Now we just have to finish the deal."