Sharks beat Stars, avoid elimination, humiliation of sweep

San Jose Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov (10), of Kazakhstan, defends the goal against Dallas Stars forward Niklas Hagman (15) of, Finland, during the first period of Game 4 of an NHL Western Conference semifinal hockey playoff series in Dallas Wednesday, April 30, 2008. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

DALLAS—Facing not only elimination but the humiliation of a sweep, the San Jose Sharks somehow turned those stakes into a sense of calm.

And a series-extending victory.

Patrick Marleau scored a short-handed goal to tie the game in the second period, then Milan Michalek scored on a power play early in the third period and the Sharks held on for a 2-1 victory over the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night, sending the series back to San Jose for Game 5 on Friday night.

"The pressure's kind of off," center Joe Pavelski said. "Not many teams come back from a 3-0 deficit. We know it's going to take a lot of hard work. It's only going to get harder. We wanted to get this one and be able to go back home in our building and have another chance to win there. That's the mind-set, just one at a time."

San Jose had lost six straight elimination games and nine of 10. Yet maybe the thought of getting swept inspired this group. After all, they do know something about rallying, having turned an 11-point division deficit on Feb. 29 into a division title on March 28.

The team they caught? Dallas.

"We're still alive and this is still a good series," said Joe Thornton, whose pass through the legs of Jonathan Cheechoo and onto Michalek's stick set up the winning goal. "A lot of people thought we weren't going to win tonight, but the 20 guys in here still had faith. We still want to make a series out of this."

In the only other NHL playoff game Wednesday, Philadelphia beat Montreal 4-2.

The Stars were seeking their first sweep since 1999, the postseason that ended with the franchise's only Stanley Cup title. Things were looking good when Jere Lehtinen stole a pass between the circles right in front of the San Jose goal and put Dallas ahead 1-0 early in the second period.

Brad Richards nearly made it 2-0, but hit the frame of the goal. A penalty on the Sharks then put Dallas on the power play, but Marleau stole the puck from Sergei Zubov and raced right at goalie Marty Turco, producing a nearly identical goal to the short-handed one he had in Game 3.

There were some differences, though.

"I pushed the puck a little far ahead of myself and was on a different angle, so I wasn't coming straight in on him," said Marleau, who scored his fourth goal of these playoffs and his 24th since 2003-04, matching Calgary's Jarome Iginla for the most during that period.

Teammate Brian Campbell was going off the ice when he saw Marleau bump the puck a little too far up the ice.

"I couldn't believe it was way ahead of him like that," Campbell said. "But he's got the speed to catch up to it."

While the Sharks are looking forward to going home, you kind of have to wonder why. Road teams are 3-1 this series and 14-4 in the last 18 games between these clubs.

The Stars know they still have three more chances to close things out.

"We're happy to be in that position, but we know it's not over," defenseman Stephane Robidas said. "We have one more to win and it'll be the toughest. You don't want to give them life. We gave them momentum a little bit. The sooner we can close them out, it'll be better for us."

Flyers 4, Canadiens 2

Danny Briere scored on a power play with 3:38 left and R.J. Umbarger scored into an empty net for his second goal of the game as host Philadelphia took a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Flyers, the worst team in the NHL last season, can eliminate the top-seeded Canadiens in Game 5 on Saturday night in Montreal.

Tomas Plekanec and Saku Koviu scored 37 seconds apart late in the third period to bring Montreal into a 2-2 tie. Briere then scored his eighth goal of the postseason.

Martin Biron had 36 saves for the Flyers, while rookie Jaroslav Halak made his first postseason start in place of Carey Price for Montreal. He made 22 saves.