DETROIT -- You'd think they'd be a little more excited.

The Carolina Hurricanes marched into Joe Louis Arena and knocked off the Detroit Red Wings, the President's trophy winners and pretty-much undisputed best team in the league, 3-2 in overtime of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals on Tuesday night.

But after Hurricanes center Ron Francis converted a Jeff O'Neill pass for the game winner, O'Neill raised only one arm, patted Francis on the rear end and headed for the locker room. With playoff emotions running high, it wasn't exactly the exuberant reaction one would expect.

"We don't really have any hot shots or hotheads on our team," said O'Neill. "We just try and go about our business and be professional about it."

That business is winning hockey games. The Hurricanes didn't schlep all the way up to Michigan to be happy with a split, and they certainly don't want to go back to Raleigh with one. They want to leave Detroit up two games to none. Game 1 was merely the first step. Thursday night's Game 2 is the second.

"We need four wins, so one is really not that big of a deal," said Hurricanes center Rod Brind'Amour. "It's in the books, we're happy we have it, but we still have a big hill to climb."

But to hear the Hurricanes talk, that hill is more like a mountain.

"There is a lot of room for improvement," said Carolina coach Paul Maurice. "Our power play has to be better. I think we passed up some shots. We didn't get a lot of opportunities to shoot and when we did, we passed those up."

The Hurricanes outshot the Red Wings, 26-25, a margin that could have been bigger had they not spent so much time on the penalty kill.

"I think we spent a little too much time in the penalty box," Francis said. "That's certainly an area we can improve on. We have to be a little more disciplined in our game."

The Red Wings were 1-for-7 on the power play; the Hurricanes were 1-for-6. In five-on-five situations, the Hurricanes outscored the Red Wings, 2-1.

"You can kill the penalties and do a good job, but you just can't get chances to score on the penalty kill," said Brind'Amour. "We're a good five-on-five team. That's where we make our hay, so to speak, and the flow just wasn't there for us because of the penalties."

The Hurricanes are anticipating a better performance from the Red Wings in Game 2, something more similar to the one they put forth in back-to-back shutouts in Games 6 and 7 against the Avalanche.

"We're not in their locker room, but in Game 2, I expect nothing less than the best effort they have," said 'Canes defenseman Aaron Ward. "It's a perennial All-Star team in there. We realize we're up against a pretty big feat now."

Which is no reason to get too excited.