Kane scores hat trick, Sharks defeat Hurricanes for third straight win

SAN JOSE -- Evander Kane became the first player in San Jose Sharks history to have a hat trick in the first period in a 5-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at SAP Center on Wednesday.

"The puck was finding my stick and I was finding the back of the net," Kane said.
Martin Jones made 36 saves, including 15 in the first period, for San Jose (3-4-0), which has won three straight after opening the season with four consecutive losses.
The Sharks held a 3-1 lead after the first despite being outshot 16-7.
"Jones] was really solid," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "I thought that first period, it could have been 3-3. He's given us two real good games in a row."
***[WATCH: [All Hurricanes vs. Sharks highlights]*
Dougie Hamilton and Erik Haula scored for Carolina (6-2-0), which was denied a franchise-best start to a season. The Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers have never begun a season 7-1-0.
"They're the No. 1 team in the League coming in," Kane said. "We wanted to take away their speed and I thought we did a pretty good job, especially in the second and third periods."
Carolina has split the first two of a three-game trip to California; the Hurricanes won 2-0 at the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.
"They got a couple of early bounces, and that was really the difference in the game," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said.
Kane scored at 8:36 to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead before Hamilton tied it with his fifth of the season at 10:46.
Kane scored his next two goals on the power play late in the period; he gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead at 17:19 and made it 3-1 on a redirection at 19:43.
"Special moment for him," Sharks forward Logan Couture said. "He's a goal-scorer, that's what he does. He goes to the net hard and fills that role."

Kane's other NHL hat trick was on March 16, 2018, when he scored four goals at the Calgary Flames eight games after being acquired by San Jose in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres.
"It was obviously nice to be a part of getting that lead," Kane said. "The guys did a great job of getting pucks to the net. Our power play executed. It was nice to get it at home."
Kane leads the Sharks with four goals despite serving a three-game suspension to start the season.
"When he's hot, there's not many guys who are as hot as him," Couture said. "We're hoping to ride that wave a little longer."
Barclay Goodrow scored at 14:37 of the second period to give the Sharks a 4-1 lead.

Haula got the Hurricanes within two at 15:41 of the third period to make it 4-2, but Tomas Hertl scored an empty-net goal at 19:07 for the 5-2 final. Kane had an assist on Hertl's goal.
The Sharks won the special teams battle, going 2-for-4 on the power play while killing off all four Hurricanes power plays.
"We're moving our feet, we're pressuring the opposition trying to force them to make plays a little quicker than they'd like to," Goodrow said.
Brind'Amour said he was not pleased with Carolina's special-teams play.
"We had no attention to detail," he said. "There are going to be lots of penalties, it's just that way now. You have to do a better job at killing them off."

They said it

"It was a challenge to come into here. We just weren't jumping and we weren't tenacious. That comes from being tired. Hopefully we can get some rest and try to finish this road trip off with a win." -- Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton
"Establishing our home ice this week, especially with a couple days off between games is important. Getting leads early is something we didn't do when we lost four in a row, and we've done a good job of playing with the lead. Those are some positive steps." -- Sharks forward Evander Kane

Need to know

Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho got his 200th NHL point with an assist on Hamilton's goal. … Haula has a four-game point streak (three goals, one assist). … Kane is the ninth Sharks player to score three goals in the same period. … Couture extended his point streak to five games (one goal, five assists) with an assist. … Sharks forward Timo Meier played his 200th NHL game. … Couture won 14 of 18 face-offs.

What's next

Hurricanes: At the Anaheim Ducks on Friday (10 p.m. ET; PRIME, FS-CR, NHL.TV)
Sharks: Host the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCA, MSG-B, NHL.TV)