NHL: Toronto 3, Detroit 2

DETROIT, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Nikolai Kulemin, making his NHL debut, scored the game-winning goal Thursday and Toronto spoiled Detroit's home opener by downing the Red Wings 3-2.

Detroit raised its championship banner from the 2007-08 season prior to the game, but the Maple Leafs never trailed during the first contest of the NHL season to be played in North America.

The campaign officially began last weekend with four games in Europe.

Kulemin, who played the last three years in his native Russia, had been listed as questionable this week because of a knee injury. He was activated prior to the game, however, and produced an unassisted goal 7:25 into the third period that gave Toronto a 3-1 lead.

Pavel Kubina scored Toronto's first goal with 26 seconds left in the first period and Dominic Moore made it 2-0 with 4:56 to go in the second. Tomas Holmstrom twice brought Detroit back to within a goal.

Vesa Toskala, who played in a career-high 66 games last season, made 35 saves for Toronto and Chris Osgood stopped 26 shots for the Red Wings.