DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings usually are more disciplined when it comes to limiting penalties than they showed Wednesday in their season opener.

They spent too much time in the penalty box, but their penalty killers bailed them out.

The Red Wings killed all seven Buffalo power plays, including a pair of five-on-threes, and defeated the Sabres 2-1 at Joe Louis Arena.

“I didn't like killing as much as we did,'' coach Mike Babcock said. “They had two long five-on-threes, but I thought we were aggressive and didn't give them much zone time. They were under pressure when they were in our zone, so that's a positive thing for us. We had lots of forwards contributing. Howie was good.''

Jimmy Howard made 19 saves. Considering all the power-play time the Sabres had, the Red Wings did a good job limiting them to 20 shots.

Last season, the Red Wings allowed four power-play goals in a season-opening 6-0 loss at St. Louis.

Their first game in the the Eastern Conference, against new Atlantic Division rival Buffalo, was much different.

Mikael Samuelsson and Pavel Datsyuk scored 35 seconds apart in the first period. The Sabres cut the lead on a goal by Zemgus Girgensons with 7:24 to play in the third period, but the Red Wings held on for the win.

“I thought our penalty kill was good,'' Babcock said. “Actually, I thought our power play was real dangerous, too. We didn't score on it but I thought it was really dangerous.

“In fairness to them, they hung around, their back end moved the puck good and in the end it's a one-shot game. I would have liked to see us be a little more intense, stay out of the box more and put a little more pressure in the O-zone, but good win for us."

It was a successful Red Wings debut for Daniel Alfredsson and Stephen Weiss, who teamed up Johan Franzen to form an effective second line at both ends of the ice.

“I thought we played OK today and had fun out there,'' Alfredsson said. “I think we would like more with the puck but I thought we were solid in the neutral zone and in our own end and didn't give much up at all. We got a 2-0 lead pretty early and I thought five- on-five we did a pretty good job limiting their chances.''

But the penalty killing win it for them. They killed a five-on-three that lasted for 1:31 in the first, just before they scored the two quick goals, and then killed a 51-second five-on-three in the second.

“Usually the goalie is the best penalty killer and he was outstanding tonight, but also guys were sacrificing themselves, throwing their bodies in front of shots,'' Alfredsson said. “I'm sure Buffalo walks away feeling they wasted opportunities with the amount of power-play chances they had.''

Joakim Andersson, Cory Emmerton, Drew Miller, Weiss, Alfredsson, Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg led the way up front on the penalty kill. The top defensive pairing of Niklas Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson led the way on the back end. Kyle Quincey, Brendan Smith and Danny DeKeyser also were strong on the PK.

“What won us the game was our penalty killers,'' Howard said. “They did a great job and we gave them a lot of opportunities – two five on threes. So we’re going to have to clean up that end of the game.''

Howard blamed himself for the Sabres goal. His clearing attempt behind the net deflected off Brian Flynn, right to Girgensons in the slot.

“It was one of those things where it was tough to hear and I didn't really hear anything,'' Howard said. “I'm the one that makes the call and I decided to go hard around. It was unfortunate that it hit him and went right out in the slot on the guy's stick. That's my bad.''

Howard bailed his teammates out earlier in the game. They bailed him out by preserving the lead in the end.