CALGARY, March 10, 2009 -- Alberta's Kevin Martin continued to roll and New Brunswick's Russ Howard worked his team back into the fray here at the Tim Hortons Brier Tuesday afternoon.

Martin cracked a five in the very first end against PEI's Rod MacDonald and then never looked back, cruising to an easy 11-4 victory. It was the second six-end game for Alberta of the day. They also played just six ends in beating BC's Sean Geall Tuesday morning by a score of 8-2.

"That was a good solid day and a good solid start again," Martin said afterward.

Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton, on the other hand, had the opposite experience Tuesday afternoon in a 5-4 loss to New Brunswick's Howard.

"The first five ends we were brutal," Stoughton said. "We were lucky to even be in the game."

The loss dropped Manitoba's record to 4-2 and puts them into a tie for third place with Newfoundland's Brad Gushue. New Brunswick, meantime, is now back in the hunt, sitting just behind those two teams at 4-3.

"We're 4-3, which isn't great," Howard said, "but we lost to Martin and Glenn Howard and a lot of people have done that." Ontario is 6-0 heading into tonight, while Alberta is done for the day at 7-0.

In other games Tuesday afternoon, Quebec's Jean-Michel Menard drilled Nova Scotia's Mark Dacey 12-5, while Saskatchewan's Joel Jordison won a thriller, scoring three in the tenth end to squeak out an 8-7 win over Jamie Koe of NWT/Yukon.

The Brier resumes Tuesday evening when PEI's MacDonald plays BC's Geall, Manitoba's Stoughton plays Ontario's Howard, NWT/Yukon's Koe plays Northern Ontario's Mike Jakubo and Nova Scotia's Dacey plays Newfoundland's Brad Gushue. TSN will broadcast the draw live, beginning at 6 p.m. MT.