It's down to two teams with unblemished records at the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian men's curling championship at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg.

While defending champ Glenn Howard of Ontario was handing Manitoba's Kerry Burtnyk his first loss of the round-robin, Alberta's Kevin Martin kept pace with a victory over Peter Gallant of P.E.I. in Draw 7 play Monday afternoon.

Ontario stole single points in the second and third ends, and never gave Manitoba a chance to generate offence, en route to a 7-2 victory that gave Ontario a 5-0 record, while Manitoba dropped to 4-1.

"It was uncharacteristic of Kerry; he was missing shots that Kerry Burtnyk doesn't miss," said Howard. "But it was a nice time for us for him to have an average game."

Alberta, meanwhile, opened the game with a deuce and added four more in the third and never looked pack in handing the Gallant foursome its fourth straight loss.

"That was a strong effort," said Martin, who plays Ontario on Thursday morning. "I don't know that there were any misses the first five ends. But I think I can play a bit better myself."

In other Draw 7 play, Saskatchewan's Pat Simmons bounced back from a morning loss to Alberta by beating Brian Rafuse of Nova Scotia 8-5. Saskatchewan improved to 4-1, tied for third place with Manitoba, while Nova Scotia dropped to 1-3.

And Newfoundland/Labrador's Brad Gushue got to the .500 mark with a 9-5 win over Chad Cowan of the Yukon/Northwest Territories. Newfoundland/Labrador is at 2-2 while the Territories dropped to 1-3.

B.C.'s Bob Ursel (1-3), New Brunswick's James Grattan (1-3), Northern Ontario's Eric Harnden (1-3) and Quebec's Jean-Michel Menard (1-3) all had byes.

Play at the the Tim Hortons Brier resumes Monday, with games scheduled for 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. (all times Eastern); both games will be on TSN.

Tuesday, games are scheduled for 9:30 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. (all times Eastern); curltv.com will show the morning draw, while the latter two draws will be on TSN.