Detroit takes Game One

NHL teams

Detroit has the early lead in the series, but all indications are that the Capitals are not going away without a fight.

Washington controlled the last part of the game and game close to tieing the game and sending it to an overtime. Chris Osgood in Detroit's net made clutch saves.

"Ozzie really made some great saves for us tonight," defenseman Larry Murphy said. "They didn't have a lot of shots, but the ones they had tended to be sharp scoring chances and Ozzie really came up big."

Nicklas Lidstrom and Joey Kocur gave the Red Wings two-goal lead in the first period and it seemed that Detroit settled to protect their lead for the last two periods.

Richard Zednik scored Washington's only goal in the second period. Despite pressing in the end of the third period, Washington failed to score again.

Many are expecting Detroit to win the series in four or five games but they will have to step it up. Washington on the other hand can't expect to win one game if they don't get more shots. The Red Wings outshot Washington 31-17.

"We were supposed to get blasted out of here five or six to nothing and that didn't happen. We felt we put ourselves in position to win game one. We didn't. Back to the drawing board. If we come out with the same effort we had over the last 30 minutes, we'll be OK." Washington coach Ron Wilson said.