Couture’s three goals enough for Sharks to beat Sabres

Logan Couture scored his third career hat trick and Evander Kane had two assists to help the San Jose Sharks break a two-game losing streak with a 5-1 home victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.

Logan Couture scored his third career hat trick and Evander Kane had two assists to help the San Jose Sharks break a two-game losing streak with a 5-1 home victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.

Couture and Joonas Donskoi scored on power plays in the first 4:02 of the game and Couture added two goals in the third period, the last into an empty net, as the Sharks won their fourth straight in the series.

Joe Pavelski also scored on a power play in the third period, Martin Jones had 24 saves and the Sharks won their fourth straight in the series. San Jose was playing its first game at home after a five-game road trip.

Buffalo defenseman Jake McCabe scored his first goal of the season at 1:35 of the second period on a shot that Jones never saw, but that was the only offence the Sabres could muster as they fell to 1-2 on their five-game road trip. Carter Hutton had 34 saves.

Kane played against the Sabres for the first time they traded him to San Jose on Feb. 26. Kane leads the Sharks with four goals and seven points and has 13 goals in 24 games since the trade.

San Jose was 3-for-7 on the power play and Buffalo was 0-for-5.

Donskoi and Couture scored their power-play goals 27 seconds apart after Kyle Okposo was given a double-minor penalty for high sticking at 1:45 of the first period.

Donskoi scored at 3:35 of the period after Hutton could not control a shot from the right circle by Erik Karlsson. The puck hit Hutton's blocker and appeared to bounce off Donskoi before rolling into the net.

Couture scored on a wrist shot from left circle high to Hutton's glove side to make it 2-0 at 4:02 of the period, and put the puck into an open side of the net after a backhand pass from Kane at 4:54 of the third period for a 3-1 lead after McCabe scored the only goal of the second period.

Couture and Pavelski scored late. Couture has three goals this season, all in the last four games.

San Jose defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic played his 900th game, all with the Sharks.

(With inputs from agencies.)