updated 1:14 a.m. ET May 3, 2008

SAN JOSE, Calif. - When the San Jose Sharks discarded all caution and finally decided to attack in Game 5, they were down two goals on the scoreboard and two games in the series, with playoff elimination just 14 minutes away.

The Sharks started pressing, and Milan Michalek got their first goal. They started taking chances, and Jeremy Roenick’s high-risk pass set up Brian Campbell’s tying score.

When overtime rolled around, the Sharks were soaring — and Joe Pavelski got the goal that put the Sharks halfway to a historic postseason comeback.

Pavelski scored 65 seconds into the third overtime game of this second-round series, and the Sharks evaded elimination for the second straight time Friday night, improbably rallying from a late two-goal deficit to beat the Dallas Stars 3-2.

The Sharks just won’t go away — and now they’re going back to Dallas for Game 6 on Sunday night with a 3-2 series deficit.

“We said, ’Let’s go out and throw out everything we have in the third period,”’ Roenick said. “’Let’s just empty the tanks and put out every effort we possibly have. If we do that, we’ll have a shot.”’

San Jose is just the fourth team in the past 20 seasons to stretch a series even to six games after trailing 0-3. As Sharks coach Ron Wilson has reminded his players, only two teams in NHL history have recovered from such dire circumstances to win a series: the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942 and the New York Islanders in 1975.

“I think there’s a little bit of doubt in their mind,” Wilson said. “This (comeback) doesn’t happen very often, and then you top it off with this (game). ... We’ve done a lot of things that are great for our character, to show that we have it. At times tonight we showed our nerves and our younger players showed their youth, but we survived. We really took it to them.”

The second-seeded Sharks’ inconsistent brilliance defined the NHL’s second-best regular season, and they were unsurprisingly listless before Michalek and Campbell scored in a 5:47 span in the third period, with Campbell firing home the tying goal with 8:53 to play.

Pavelski ended it before some fans had even settled in their seats for overtime, dangling in the slot and beating Stars goalie Marty Turco for an unassisted goal after defenseman Christian Ehrhoff kept the play alive with an aggressive pinch.

“I just kept pushing it and pushing it,” said Pavelski, who has a team-leading five goals in his breakout postseason. “It’s really one of the only shots I have as a shooter coming around. (Dallas defenseman Nicklas Grossman) is going to drop. If he does move at all, it’s going to open up, and the short side was just there. That’s where I was shooting the whole time.”

Jere Lehtinen and captain Brenden Morrow scored second-period goals for the Stars, who controlled play and seemed headed for an easy evening at the Shark Tank, where they dominated the home team over the past two years.

Morrow also had two apparent goals that were waved off by the officials, one for kicking the puck into the net and another for batting it with his hand.

“Our team battles through adversity, but those were two critical points of the game,” Dallas coach Dave Tippett said. “I still haven’t seen a distinct kicking motion, but I suppose somebody else did. The other one, I agree with the call ... but if Brenden Morrow isn’t cross-checked in the back, he would have put the puck down and in the back of the net. Those are two critical plays in the game, and you have to find a way to overcome that.”

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