Kane’s OT goal helps Sharks end losing skid

SAN JOSE — Evander Kane scored 41 seconds into overtime as the Sharks snapped a threegame losing streak with a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues at SAP Center.

Kane same into Blues zone on an odd-man rush and snapped a shot past Blues goalie Ville Husso for his ninth of the season as the Sharks closed their seven-game homestand with a 2-4-1 record.

Before Kane’s goal, Logan Couture and Devan Dubnyk did what they could Monday to help the Sharks get back on track.

Dubnyk finished with 24 saves and Couture scored his 13th goal of the season in the third period.

Dubnyk stopped 20 of 22 shots in the first two periods, including three of four in the penalty kill as the Sharks took four minor penalties, including three in the second period.

Couture’s goal came on the power play at the 7:58 mark of the third period to tie the game 2-2. An official review determined that the puck deflected off of Couture’s skate and into the net in a legal fashion. Of Couture’s 13 goals this season, six have come against the Blues.

The Sharks trailed 2-1 going into the third period.

With Kevin Labanc serving a tripping penalty, a David Perron shot from the right faceoff circle was tipped by Brayden Schenn past Dubnyk with 54 seconds left in the second period for a 2-1 Blues lead.

Labanc was benched for the rest of the game, as John Leonard took his spot on a line with Couture and Evander Kane in the second period. Labanc finished with 10:05 in ice time,

The Sharks managed just 11 shots on Husso in the first two periods, but Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored for the Sharks at the 7:00 mark of the second period to tie the game 1-1.

Forward Timo Meier missed his second straight game Monday with a lower-body injury. Meier skated Monday morning but did not participate in pregame warmups.

With Meier out, Joachim Blichfeld was reinserted in the lineup after he served his two-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Nathan MacKinnon last week. Blichfeld, who sat out both of the games with the Vegas Golden

tised.) But Curry is such a great 3point shooter that not just a few players, but the vast majority of the league is trying to be like Steph. There are no other means to winning anymore.

You can’t blame anyone for trying to be like Curry. It’s not like Steph is built like LeBron or Zion Williamson. No one would have pegged him as a revolutionary. And, to their credit, a few players even have found ways to come close or match No. 30. Those players were on the floor Sunday.

And yet still, there’s no one quite like Curry. Sunday was a celebration of that fact.

Roughly halfway through the first quarter in Atlanta, Curry — who had already knocked down two corner 3-pointers (one came with some turnaround, no-look flair) — decided to shoot from the center-court circle.

The 33-foot shot went in, because of course it did.

Oh, did I forget to mention that Curry won the 3-point contest before the game tipped off, wiping the floor with the competition in the first round and then making things interesting en route to a victory in the final round? Yeah, he did that, because, well, of course he did.

In the second quarter, Curry shot from 34 feet. It went in, too. Duh.

At the end of the frame, when the only player in the NBA that can go toe-to-toe with him shooting from distance, Damian Lillard, pulled up from half-court to make a 3-pointer, Curry matched him.

Because of course he did. He’s Steph Curry.

LeBron James was obviously elated to have Curry leading his team to a win. Despite being two of the best to ever play the game, Sunday was the first that that happened. James tweeted after the game that Curry “changed how the game was played by himself alone”. He’s right. And while so many refuse to acknowledge the fact for reasons beyond logic, now that you know it, you’re not allowed to forget it.

No one knows how long Curry will keep playing at this incredible level — at any level at all. There’s never been a player like him, so it’s impossible to say how this story is supposed to end. Perhaps he’s the basketball Tom Brady, still breaking ankles and knocking down 40-footers in his 40s.

It sounds improbable, but is that notion any more ridiculous than a skinny 6-foot-3 kid from Davidson who we once thought could barely dunk (his alley-oop slam on Sunday was his most shocking made shot) winning titles for the Golden State Warriors, of all teams?

Of turning a 3-pointer into something as cool as a dunk?

Into completely changing the way the sport of basketball is played at the professional level, down?

I think not. But I do think that no matter how long we get with the Baby Faced Assassin, we spend a bit more time recognizing just how special he is.