Logan Couture recorded his third career hat trick, and Evander Kane and Brent Burns each 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.
Joonas Donskoi and Couture 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 scored on a power play in the third period, and Martin Jones had 24 saves for San Jose. The Sharks returned home after going 2-2-1 on a 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 only offense the Sabres could muster as they fell to 1-2-0 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 while 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 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. He also 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.
Pavelski scored in the third period before Couture added his empty-netter. Couture has four goals this season, all in the past four games.
Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic played his 900th game, all with the Sharks.
--Field Level Media
Buffalo | San Jose | |
Jake McCabe 1 | Points | Logan Couture 3 |
Jake McCabe 1 | Goals | Logan Couture 3 |
Rasmus Dahlin 1 | Assists | Brent Burns 2 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | Logan Couture 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Carter Hutton .895 | Save Percentage | Martin Jones .960 |
Carter Hutton 34 | Saves | Martin Jones 24 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Buffalo | 25 | 1 | 0-5 | 4-7 | 21 | 31 |
San Jose | 39 | 5 | 3-7 | 5-5 | 15 | 28 |