That gap. That glimmer of freedom. That slight tear in the fabric of punt coverage.

“When you see it open up that way,’’ acknowledged Roy Finch, with a dreamy expression, “your eyes get real big.”

As big as manhole covers.

Cradling a 57-yard punt as the McMahon Stadium scoreclock ticked down to 1:25 remaining in the first quarter, one by one he slid out of their grasp with the ease of a snake shedding its skin.

Launching from his own 13-yard-line, the S.S. Roy Finch set sail, left to the sideline stripe, veering back into the centre of the field, and from them on straight on into touchdown port, 97 yards away.

First Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ wideout Felix Faubert-Lussier.

Then linebacker Geoff Hughes.

A desperation waist-high lunge from punter Sergio Castillo, clawing at nothing but warm, late-July southern Alberta air.

And, finally, the dogged but inevitably fruitless pursuit of former U of Calgary Dinos’ tailback Mercer Timmis.

“I just saw a crease to the left side,’’ recalled Finch. “I knew if I beat the one guy to the sideline, I had a chance.

“I made a move on another guy and when I saw it was just me and the kicker I said to myself: ‘It’s gonna be a good day.’ ”

At that moment, by chance, his own punter, Rob Maver, dropped by his locker to offer congratulations.

“Best returner I’ve ever played with,” lauded the eight-year man.

Finch beamed.

“I pride myself on being the best I possibly can; on being great,’’ he said.

“There’s a lot of great players on this team and we push each other.”

Difficult to pinpoint something as decisive as a ‘turning point’ when dissecting a 60-1 bludgeoning, but the Finch TD return certainly qualified as that Saturday.

“I kinda thought it lit the fuse for the whole team,’’ acknowledged boss Dave Dickenson the morning after. “I didn’t feel like we had great energy at all, in warmups or coming out of the gate.

“We were trying to get into the game. So when Roy got that return I thought it did jump-start the whole team. We were decent early but certainly after that play it seemed we kinda fed off it and then Shaq (Richardson, on a 47-yard interception return off QB Zach Collaros) got his touchdown and we started rolling as a full team.”

The Finch strike staked the homesteaders to a 9-0 lead, and they went relentlessly on from there, posting their fourth victory in six starts (4-1-1) heading into a short prep week before travelling east to BMO Field and a date against the Argonauts.

Finch, as Stamp partisans have come to know, offers better returns than a blue-chip stock.

Over his first season in the Red and White, 2016, he took back 71 punts for a franchise record 993 yards and one touchdown (an 85-yarder against the northern interlopers from Edmonton on Labour Day).

Saturday, the damage:  Seven punt returns for 147 yards and the TD, one kickoff haul-back for 38, three carries from scrimmage tacking on another 35 and one catch for four more.

That’s 224 yards of prime real estate.

Photo by Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

“What’s important is having teammates like this,’’ said Finch, scanning the room post-victory. “I can’t show my special talents without their help. What I do is a byproduct of what they do.

“They work hard for me and I try to repay them in kind.

“I pride myself on being versatile; on being able to help out in a number of ways. I don’t like to speak about myself. That’s for others. Teammates. Coaches. Whoever. But I do want to be one of the best players in this league. I’ve showed, I think, that I’m not just a returner.

“Running back’s my natural position. The one I started playing, since five or six years old. That’s my natural position. Where I’m most comfortable.

“Punt returner is something that I had to learn. But once you track the ball, you just do what you do. Show your stuff.”

The Tiger-Cats got a snootful of Finch’s particular brand of fireworks.

“It’s a gift, what I can do,’’ he said. “But you’ve still gotta work hard. You have to want to take that gift and make the most of it.

“The game is 90 per cent mental, 10 per cent physical.

“Every time I touch the ball, I want it to be a difference-maker.

“Every time I touch the ball, I want to do something they’ll remember.”

The Tabbies, wager large, won’t be forgetting any time soon.