CALGARY, March 10, 2009  (CCA) — Ontario’s Glenn Howard and Alberta’s Kevin Martin appear to be on a collision course for first place here at the 2009 Tim Hortons Brier.

Howard and Martin have both yet to be beaten, tied at 7-0 heading into Day 5 of the Brier Wednesday morning. The two teams meet Thursday evening on the last draw of the round-robin.

With Martin already at 7-0 and enjoying a night off, Howard needed a win against Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton Tuesday evening to keep pace.

And the Ontario skip, fresh off a convincing victory over brother Russ Howard of New Brunswick earlier Tuesday, picked up right where he left off, jumping out to a 3-0 lead after just the third end and then sealing the deal with three more in the fifth end to take a 6-1 stranglehold against Stoughton.

Stoughton had also lost to New Brunswick’s Howard earlier in the day and the symetry of that was not lost on the younger Howard Tuesday night. “A taste of the brothers,” said Glenn Howard. “Tough day for Manitoba and a good day for New Brunswick and Ontario.”

“It wasn’t pretty for the first five ends,” said Stoughton, adding he felt his team played much better in the latter half of the game — staging a comeback that forced Howard to throw his last rock of the tenth end against three Manitoba counters. Howard drew the button to count one and seal the victory.

The loss dropped Manitoba’s record to 4-3, putting them in a tie for fourth place with New Brunswick heading into Wednesday.

Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue vaulted into sole posession of third place on Tuesday night with a 9-6 win over Nova Scotia’s Mark Dacey. The win improved Newfoundland to 5-2.

In other action Tuesday night, BC’s Sean Geall beat PEI’s Rod MacDonald 6-3 and NWT/Yukon’s Jamie Koe defeated Northern Ontario’s Mike Jakubo 7-4.

The Brier resumes here Wednesday morning at  8:30 a.m. MT (12:30 p.m. AT). TSN will provide live coverage.