SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Detroit Red Wings seemingly were out of steam a minute into the third period Sunday.

They had been getting dominated by the San Jose Sharks for two periods and were trailing by two goals.

But, with their season again on the line, the Red Wings stormed back with three unanswered goals in the third period for a 4-3 victory against the Sharks in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals at HP Pavilion.

Now, the pressure squarely is on San Jose as the series returns to Joe Louis Arena for Game 6 on Tuesday with the Sharks leading 3-2.

Jimmy Howard was outstanding early, keeping his team in the game, as San Jose outshot Detroit 42-22. Pavel Datsyuk was dominant despite playing with a sore wrist, setting up three goals.

"Just says a lot about the nature of the room," Howard said. "We have that presence, guys with a lot of leadership. There’s a lot of character on our team and never any quit. Our season was on the line in the third period and we found a way."

Tomas Holmstrom snapped a 3-3 tie at 13:52 of the third period, tipping in a blast by Nicklas Lidstrom. Datsyuk stripped the puck from Patrick Marleau along the boards to set up Lidstrom’s shot.

"I gave it to Nick. I know Nick shoots pretty well," Datsyuk said. "Having Homie in front of the net is good with this one. I’m happy for him doing his job well."

Said Howard of Datsyuk: "He just amazes us every single night. He’s a world-class player."

The Red Wings needed to kill an elbowing penalty on Justin Abdelkader with five minutes remaining to seal the win. San Jose went 0-for-4 on the power play. The Red Wings are doing a better job of denying the Sharks clean entries into the zone, but Howard was their best penalty killer.

RED WINGS 4, SHARKS 3

Key play:

Pavel Datsyuk took the puck from Patrick Marleau along the boards and passed to Nicklas Lidstrom, whose shot was tipped in by Tomas Holmstrom with 6:08 to play in the third period, snapping a 3-3 tie.

Hero:

Datsyuk, playing with a sore wrist that prevented him from taking faceoffs, was dominant. He assisted on three goals.

Goat:

Patrick Marleau has had a disastrous series. The Sharks' leading scorer during the regular season has done nothing offensively and got beat badly by Datsyuk on the play that led to the winning goal.

Analysis:

The Red Wings have showed tremendous resolve in the third period of the past two games with the season on the line. They never have up hope and truly believed they were capable of digging out of the 0-3 series hole they faced. The Sharks blew an opportunity to put the Red Wings away and now San Jose, with its history of playoff failure, must be feeling really tight.

"Howie really stole us the game tonight," Danny Cleary said. "He played huge, a lot of big saves."

The situation looked bleak for Detroit after Logan Couture slipped a backhand shot underneath Howard during a breakaway 54 seconds into the third period to give San Jose a 3-1 lead.

But the Red Wings answered quickly on goals by Jonathan Ericsson and Cleary 1:46 apart to tie it. Ericsson fired a loose puck past Antti Niemi from in front of the net at 3:43. Cleary scored on a good second effort during a wraparound attempt.

Joe Pavelski gave the Sharks a 2-0 lead at 15:32 of the second period, scoring on a two-on-one with Ryane Clowe. But Niklas Kronwall responded quickly for the Red Wings, taking a pass from Datsyuk and whipping in a shot at 16:25 while Holmstrom created some havoc in front.

"We responded both times (they jumped ahead by two) and that made a real difference for us and just hanging around," Babcock said.

"I don’t know what it was, but we’re not happy with the way we played in the the first two periods," Kronwall said. "I thought we did a better job in the third, hard on pucks in both zones."

The Sharks dominated territorially for most of the first period, outshooting the Red Wings 16-7 and taking a 1-0 lead at 17:18 when Devin Setoguchi tipped in a shot by Dan Boyle.

San Jose couldn’t put Detroit away when it had the chance and it cost the Sharks.

"We weren’t giving up at all, kept going after them, getting pucks at the net, trying to be active with the (defense),"

Lidstrom said. "We owe it to (Howard). He kept us in the game in the first two periods."

The Red Wings are trying to become just the fourth team in NHL history to win a series after trailing 3-0.

"We’re basically playing Game 7 every game here," Kronwall said. "We were able to steal one here. Jimmy played great, kept us in the game, gave us a chance to win."

But, Babcock knows they must be much better at home.

"Tonight, we weren’t as good as we could have been," Babcock said. "We’re going to be better for sure in Game 6."