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Henry Burris is back in the saddle and the Calgary Stampeders look more like thoroughbreds with him there.

The Stamps are in Winnipeg on Friday to face the Blue Bombers (TSN, 8 p.m. ET) and Calgary has a better chance of finally winning a road game outside Alberta with the CFL's leader in touchdown passes in the lineup.

The ice under Calgary's playoff prospects was thinning in two losses while Burris sat out with a dislocated non-throwing shoulder suffered Sept. 21 in Hamilton.

Apparently a fast healer, Burris returned to the lineup and threw for 401 yards and five touchdown passes in Sunday's 38-25 win over the Blue Bombers at McMahon Stadium.

"Henry Burris is our guy," receiver Jeremaine Copeland said Tuesday at McMahon. "He is the quarterback who will carry us to a championship and you see a totally different momentum whenever the offence is out there with him in there."

Like a goaltender who can cover up a host of sins for his hockey team, Burris's performance compensated for 146 yards Calgary lost in 21 penalties.

"That's the major difference you see in our whole offence when he's in the game," Copeland said. "If we do have a penalty at first and 20, we can get a first down before having to punt, which is a big play for us.

"Usually whenever No. 1 is in the game, no matter how deep, no matter how far back we are from that first down line, we pretty much have the confidence that, on the next play, we can get it."

Calgary (7-7-1) is third in the Western Conference and five points back of second-place Saskatchewan Roughriders, who are three back of the B.C. Lions.

The Lions host Edmonton on Saturday and Hamilton visits Saskatchewan on Sunday.

Burris's shoulder passed the test early against Winnipeg when Ike Charlton sacked him in the first quarter and Burris landed on his left side.

"That made me finally relax and get my mind off, you know, 'how's the shoulder going to react?' and you just go out there and play football," he said. "I needed to get in that game. It was tough sitting out those two games previous to that and the fact that we lost both games."

But Burris admitted his shoulder was stiff Tuesday and it was backup Ben Sankey, who was signed after Burris's injury, taking more reps in practice.

"Henry is sore and we have a real short week prep-wise and he doesn't need any prep going in Winnipeg," explained head coach Tom Higgins. "We're going to make sure Ben knows what's going on should anything happen to Henry."

Burris ranks second in the CFL behind Saskatchewan's Kerry Joseph in rushing yards by a quarterback and has scored five touchdowns on the run.

Higgins has given Burris the yellow light to run with the football.

"We don't want to put him at any greater risk and if he can do that by using his arm instead of using his legs, that's a plus for us," Higgins said.

With three games remaining in the regular season and two of them on the road, Calgary needs to run the table the rest of the way and hope the Roughriders collapse in order to host the Western conference semifinal for a third year in a row.

"If you can go to Winnipeg and win, it's going to be a big victory because it's the No. 1 team in the East," Copeland said. "We've got to get some kind of win under our belts because it's a very good possibility we could be going three games away in the playoffs.

"The chances are always better with Henry back there."