TAMPA, Fla. -- It's this simple: Detroit Red Wings goaltender Petr Mrazek stole the game.

His 44 saves ignited the Red Wings to take early control of this first-round Stanley Cup playoff series with a 3-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night. Goaltending performances like Mrazek's are how teams enjoy deep runs in the postseason.

If there was any doubt about Detroit coach Mike Babcock's decision to start a 23-year-old goalie with no NHL playoff experience, Mrazek put it to rest. Tampa did nearly everything it could to beat Mrazek, but it all went for naught. The Lightning even took runs at Mrazek, which only resulted in a pair of goaltender interference penalties.

If Mrazek didn't play the way he did Tampa could have easily won by four goals. Detroit took too many bad penalties but fortunately the penalty-killing unit came up big as Tampa went 0-for-7 on the power play.

"He played well," Babcock said. "We took seven penalties, so obviously we were in the box a lot and they had lots of rubber on the net. Our D really boxed out well. I thought our forwards boxed out well and found lots of loose pucks for Petr, but I thought he did a good job playing the puck and stopping the puck to give us an opportunity to be up 1-0 in the series."

With the exception of misplaying the puck behind his net a couple of times, Mrazek didn't show any signs of nerves in his first playoff game. He said after the victory that seeing that many shots early (10 in the first period) allowed him to settle in and find his rhythm. And when the Lightning put on a massive push in the third period, Mrazek made 19 saves.

Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek made 44 saves in his first postseason action. AP Photo/Chris O'Meara

"It always helps you in the first five minutes when they shoot from everywhere and it hits you," he said. "It's a huge part of the game when they didn't score in the first five minutes."

His only major miscue was not coming out to play a loose puck during a power play and allowing Tampa's Brian Boyle to collect it above the faceoff circle and break in for a short-handed goal.

"I lost the puck when they chipped it out from their zone," Mrazek said. "I should go out there and skate for it and play the puck out."

Even though veteran forward Pavel Datsyuk netted a pair of goals in the win for the Red Wings, all the focus will be on Mrazek.

"Petr really saved us tonight," Red Wings' captain Henrik Zetterberg said. "The PK was good, but other than that we've got a lot of stuff that we've got to be better at. We got the first way, we have a [practice] day tomorrow to fix a couple of things and we'll be ready to go for the next one."

The Red Wings managed only 14 shots, including just three in the first period, and they must get more pucks on the net and more traffic in front of Tampa goalie Ben Bishop, who also made his playoff debut. However, Detroit did capitalize on its chances and posted a 2-1 lead early in the second period on just the team's fourth shot.

Before the series, both coaches explained the importance of controlling the play and puck possession. Tampa held the edge in that category to no avail, which left Lightning coach Jon Cooper shaking his head after the loss.

"We couldn't draw it up any better than the way we played," Cooper said.

"Give Mrazek credit, he played well tonight."

Lightning captain Steven Stamkos agreed that there wasn't much more his team could do.

"Nothing. We put up almost close to 50 shots in a playoff game. We're doing something right," Stamkos said. "I think we realize when we competed, we got pucks in deep. We got pucks on the net. It's just one of those times where it wasn't going in for us. We'll play similar to that for the next game, and we should be OK."

The Lightning were able to avoid Detroit's forecheck and quickly move the puck out of the defensive zone, pick up speed in the neutral zone and force Mrazek to make save after save after save.

"We played pretty well, we just didn't win the game and that's the part that sucks, because ultimately it's the business of winning," Cooper said. "It's not the business of moral victories, you outshot them, good for you. Ultimately, Detroit is up 1-0 and they took a game that we wanted and now it puts the pressure on us."

Cooper added if the Lightning can play this way for the rest of this series, then he likes his team's chances. But if Mrazek continues to play the way he did in Game 1, Detroit will have a solid chance of winning.

"We like to pick up our goalie when he doesn't play good, and we look for the goalie to pick us up when we're not as good," Babcock said.

Zetterberg concurred.

"He helped us more than we helped him tonight," he said.

Because of Mrazek being the difference-maker, the Red Wings are in control of the series. Even veteran goalie Jimmy Howard, who had to watch from the bench when Mrazek was picked to be the starter, was all smiles after the game.