CALGARY, March 10, 2009 (CCA)– The long anticipated Battle of the Howard Household proved to be not much of a battle at all here at the Tim Hortons Brier Tuesday morning, as little brother Glenn Howard of Ontario smacked big brother Russ Howard of New Brunswick 7-2 in just eight ends.

Ontario’s Howard took control of the game from the outset when Russ Howard was wide with his last rock of the first end — an attempted draw behind cover against two Ontario counters.

Ontario’s Howard plucked his brother’s stone off the four-foot to count three and effectively take a stranglehold on the game right there.

Whatever designs Russ Howard — and son Steven Howard — might have had on a comeback were fully extinguished in the fifth end when Ontario, already leading 4-1, stole three more.

The game ended on a familial note, however, as Glenn Howard held the broom for Russ Howard on the final rock of the eighth end and then helped drag his brother’s rock to the button to count one for New Brunswick and send the game to handshakes.

The win improved Ontario to 6-0, the same record as Alberta’s Kevin Martin, who was an 8-2 winner over BC’s Sean Geall in other action Tuesday morning.

In other games, Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue thumped Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard 8-4 and Northern Ontario’s Mike Jakubo got his first win, dropping Saskatchewan’s Joel Jordison 7-5.

In the  Tuesday afternoon draw,  New Brunswick’s Howard edged Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton 5-4, Alberta’s Kevin Martin downed PEI’s Rod MacDonald  11-4, scoring five in the first end, Quebec’s Menard beat Nova Scotia’s Mark Dacey 12-5, also scoring a five-ender,  and  Saskatchewan’s Jordison edged NWT/Yukon’s Jamie Koe 8-7, scoring three points in the last end.

PEI,  now at 2-4, plays British Columbia at 9 Atlantic.