San Jose's Michalek staves off Dallas sweep

DALLAS, Texas (Reuters) - Milan Michalek's third period goal ensured the San Jose Sharks avoided a sweep at the hands of the Dallas Stars on Wednesday and kept alive their playoff hopes.

Michalek scored at 3:26 in the final period to give his side a 2-1 victory over the Stars and forced a fifth game in the best-of-seven Western Conference semi-final series.

"We'll embrace the challenge to make history in coming back from a 3-0 deficit," Sharks coach Ron Wilson told reporters.

"We've been sitting back too much and not playing Sharks hockey. There were a few blips but it was a pretty solid effort tonight."

Neither side was able to score in the first period before Jere Lehtinen opened the scoring at 5:25 of the second period for Dallas, though the lead was short-lived with Patrick Marleau tying the score at 1-1 less than four minutes later.

Michalek then ensured victory when Joe Thornton pushed the puck in front of the Dallas net to the Czech left wing, who beat Marty Turco for the game winner.

Evgeni Nabokov was forced to make just 17 saves for the Sharks, who out-shot Dallas 24-18.

"Both of these teams have shown they can win on the road," Dallas coach Dave Tippett said. "We made too many mistakes tonight to win the hockey game.

"Those are mistakes that you'd like to see cleaned up."

Dallas captain Brenden Morrow blamed the loss on undisciplined penalties.

"It's tough to keep the flow and momentum when you're killing off that many penalties," Morrow said.

Game Five is in San Jose on Friday.

In Wednesday's other playoff game, the Philadelphia Flyers moved one win away from a berth in the Eastern Conference final with a 4-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens.

The Flyers were the worst team in the NHL last season but hold a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series against the top-seeded Canadiens after the victory.

R.J. Umberger scored two goals, the second with just two seconds remaining after Daniel Briere had put the Flyers ahead with 3:38 remaining.

Scott Hartnell added the other goal for Philadelphia while Martin Biron made 36 saves.

Game Five is in Montreal on Saturday.

(Writing by Roger Lajoie in Toronto; Editing by Greg Stutchbury and John O'Brien)