Rally gives San Jose sudden life

SAN JOSE – A Sharks team that was dull and nearly dead through two periods Friday sprung to life in the third, scoring two goals to tie the score and then beating Dallas 3-2 on Joe Pavelski's goal 1:05 into overtime to keep their season alive.

For most of Game 5, it seemed as if the Sharks would fade from the Stanley Cup playoffs just as they had in their previous three trips. This time, however, they clawed back into the game with timely goals by Milan Michalek and defenseman Brian Campbell and got back into the Western Conference second-round series on Pavelski's shot.

The series returns to Dallas on Sunday, with the Stars leading 3 games to 2.

Afterward, Pavelski said the Sharks had been too eager to shoot in the team's previous two overtime defeats to Dallas – in Games 1 and 3 – and that the Stars' defenders blocked their shots by dropping to the ice. This time, Pavelski was more patient, circling in front of the Stars' net before firing a shot over goaltender Marty Turco's left shoulder.

"He (the defenseman) went down. He committed," Paveliski said. "And the shot was there."

After a scoreless first period, the Stars struck six minutes into the second when, with Christian Ehrhoff in the penalty box, Sergei Zubov took a cross-ice pass and then fed Jere Lehtinen just in front of the Sharks' net. The Stars nearly made it a two-goal advantage later when a shot deflected off Brenden Morrow and got past goalie Evgeni Nabokov. After a review by NHL officials in Toronto, however, the goal was waved off, triggering a blast of celebration from the HP Pavilion crowd.

The good vibrations proved to be short-lived. Just a few minutes later, Morrow left no doubt when he rifled in a shot from just below the faceoff circle, his sixth goal of the playoffs. Morrow also had another would-be goal waved off in the third period.

There seemed to be little hope for the Sharks, who mustered only 12 shots through two periods.

San Jose, however, cut into Dallas' lead 6:20 into the third when Joe Thornton dug the puck out from along the boards and fed Michalek for his fourth goal of the series. The tying goal came five minutes later from Campbell, who had been nearly invisible thus far in the playoffs.

Charging up ice, the swift-skating Campbell received a perfect pass from Jeremy Roenick before whipping a shot past Turco.

"I didn't move my stick at all," Campbell said. "It was right on. I don't think (Turco) got completely set because it was a bang-bang play."

Said Thornton of the third-period turnaround: "You lose the period, and you go home. That was the bottom line, and we weren't ready to do that quite yet."

Campbell's goal set up Pavelski's heroics.

The Sharks dominated the third period, and that momentum carried over into ovetime. Ehrhoff, who had struggled earlier in the game, kept possession along the near boards and then fed Pavelski, who scored his fifth goal of the playoffs.

Suddenly it's the Stars, who once were up 3-0 in the series, feeling the pressure.

"I think there's a little bit of doubt in their mind," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "This doesn't happen very often."