CALGARY, March 11, 2009 -- And then there was just one.

The ranks of the undefeated here at the 2009 Tim Hortons Brier have been trimmed to just Alberta's Kevin Martin after the Wednesday afternoon draw at the Saddledome.

Previously undefeated Glenn Howard of Ontario was handed his first defeat of the week, falling 8-5 to Quebec's Jean-Michel Menard.

The loss drops Howard's record to 8-1. He was not pleased afterward. "We need to play better than that," said Howard, "no question about it."

The win was a big one for Quebec, who improved to 4-4 and are once again in the playoff hunt. "Maybe they were more hungry than us -- I don't know," said Howard.

Ontario's Howard now sits in second place behind Alberta's Martin, who improved to 8-0 with an 8-2 thrashing of Northern Ontario's Mike Jakubo.

Newfoundland's Brad Gushue, meanwhile, is now alone in third place and two wins ahead of his next closest rival. Gushue improved to 7-2 with an 8-5 win over New Brunswick's Russ Howard -- Gushue's teammate from the Turin Olympics.

Gushue said his team has still yet to play their best. "We're playing pretty well, but still all four of us haven't put it together for one game," Gushue said.

New Brunswick's Howard, meantime, now has a 4-4 record and he believes he must win out or face the prospect of missing the playoffs or tiebreakers -- something he hasn't done since his very first Brier appearance in 1980.

"It's exactly like I predicted," Howard said. "We're good enough to beat everybody, but we have to bring our A-game."

In the only other game Wednesday afternoon, BC's Sean Geall also moved back into the playoff hunt, improving to 5-4 with a 10-6 win over Saskatchewan's Joel Jordison.

The Brier resumes here at 7:30 p.m. MT tonight, when Manitoba plays Alberta, Saskatchewan plays Nova Scotia, Quebec plays NWT/Yukon and New Brunswick plays PEI. TSN will provide live coverage.