DETROIT -- For a series that's supposed to be a sweep, Game 1 was very close.
The defending champion Detroit Red Wings held on to beat the Washington Capitals 2-1 on Tuesday night in Game 1 of the best-of-7 Stanley Cup finals.
"I don't feel we've been dominated by any stretch of the imagination," Washington coach Ron Wilson said. "I know we can play better. I know Detroit can, too. We'll take a lot of positive things out of this game.
"We read the papers. We know we were supposed to get blasted out of here five or six to nothing, but we were in position to win the game."
Washington pulled goalie Olaf Kolzig for the final 1 minute, 16 seconds, but the Capitals didn't get a shot on goal. Defenseman Jamie Macoun deflected a Richard Zednik shot out of play, and Peter Bondra sailed a shot wide on the Capitals' best late-period scoring chances.
Still, there was enough traffic in front of goalie Chris Osgood to make the Joe Louis Arena crowd of 19,983 nervous.
"We're getting used to that," quipped Osgood, who has given up a few shaky goals in the playoffs. "It's happened to us several times in the last few weeks, but we kept our composure."
So did the Capitals, who are appearing in the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in their 24-year history. They got off to a good start, then regained their composure after giving up two goals late in the first period and made the game close.
Kolzig was a big factor in that. Kolzig stopped 24 shots after Joey Kocur and Nicklas Lidstrom scored on the Wings' sixth and seventh shots of the game.
"Olie gave us a chance to win the game," Wilson said. "It didn't happen this time, but he got the job done."
Game 2 also will be here on Thursday night before action shifts to Washington for games Saturday and Tuesday.
The Red Wings came out shaky, not doing much of anything and allowing the Capitals to pressure them deep in their zone. The Wings had nothing going. It got so bad that they had to put Gordie Howe on the JumboTron, accompanied by the tune "Glory Days," to get the crowd into the game.
"The first five or six minutes I thought they were hungrier than we were," Lidstrom said. "They really put pressure on us, but we were able to ride it out."
And ride it out they did, taking a 2-0 lead on back-to-back shots in a span of 2:16 late in the period.
First, role player Kocur rushed the net to put away Doug Brown's backhand pass under Joe Reekie at 14:04. Tomas Holmstrom made the play by taking a hard hit from Sergei Gonchar to spring Brown and Kocur for a 2-on-1 break.
Then, at 16:18, Lidstrom sailed a screened shot from the left point to beat Kolzig for his sixth goal of the playoffs. Holmstrom again made the play, winning the puck in a scrum behind the net before skating in front to screen Kolzig on the shot.
"That is the key against any good goalie in the NHL," Lidstrom said. "Get the puck to the net and try to create some traffic in front of them. And be there for the rebounds."
The two goals spoiled a good start for the Caps.
"They scored twice on a couple of bad plays," Washington's Joe Juneau said. "When they got the first goal, we started panicking. The breakouts were awful, and we started giving the puck away."
Which isn't the thing to do against the Red Wings.
"I thought we played quite well the first 10 minutes," Wilson said. "But then we got a little casual, made mistakes and got down 2-0. When you're down 2-0, it's a little overwhelming, especially if it's your first crack at the finals. But we hung in there and started to believe that they're a team just like us. They make mistakes, too, and we had to capitalize."
With Wilson exhorting them, "We want enthusiasm; we're in the finals," the Caps regained their composure and got back into the game. Captain Dale Hunter took it upon himself to rough up Detroit captain Steve Yzerman, drawing a retaliatory penalty for slashing at one point.
Detroit also got caught with too many men on the ice, but the Red Wings killed off both penalties and went into a defensive shell with a 2-0 lead.
The strategy backfired when Zednik got the Caps on the board at 15:57. Zednik snapped a shot under Osgood's right arm on a feed from Andrei Nikolishin.
Nikolishin set up the goal by blocking Peter Bondra's shot from the left point. He controlled the puck and deftly sent it back to Zednik in the slot. Zednik's shot was only one of four against the Wings in the period.
"We really weren't happy with our period," Brendan Shanahan said. "It's been a bad habit of ours to get on our heels when we get a lead. We play our best when we're on our toes and forcing the other team, rushing them to make a pass."
Instead, Washington did it to them, and Kolzig's fine play kept them in the game.
"Washington played a real good game," said Detroit coach Scotty Bowman, who described the Wings as "a little mixed up."
"They believe they can win."
