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Def Leppard wasn't the only group having fun, rocking and rolling in the Motor City with their postgame concert to help amp up the banner-raising celebrations for the Detroit Red Wings.

The Toronto Maple Leafs got right into the spirit with their own brand of fun, a 3-2 shocker of a victory over the Stanley Cup champions before a Joe Louis Arena crowd of 20,066, many who came out of the closet to support the Leafs last night.

The early season prognostications have touted the Wings to repeat as champs and that the Leafs didn't deserve to be on the same ice surface. But Toronto possibly caught the Wings dreaming about their dominating performance last spring — and definitely surprised the titleholders by playing exactly the type of hockey new Leafs coach Ron Wilson espoused in the preseason.

The Leafs received strong play from goalie Vesa Toskala, stayed out of the penalty box, exhibited efficient puck movement out of their end and up the ice, used their speed to pressure the Wings into turnovers, blocked shots and held onto the lead against a potent offence.

None of these essentials were evident in the preseason.

"It's going to take a lot of time for us to come together," said Toronto forward Dominic Moore, who not only scored in the second period to give his club a 2-0 lead, but blocked a shot from Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom in the final minute.

"We have a lot of new faces. People are still getting comfortable with each other not on the ice but off the ice."

Wilson was coaching his first game with the team, and Toronto rookies Luke Schenn, Jonas Frogren, John Mitchell and Nikolai Kulemin were making their NHL debuts. Mikhail Grabovski, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers and Mike Van Ryn were playing their first game for Toronto.

There was also a mini-controversy for the Leafs. The official lineup distributed in the press box prior to the game had Toskala, who made 35 saves, including a wonderful late-game stop on Detroit's Mikael Samuelsson, listed as the team's captain even though the Leafs coach claimed no captain would be named this early in the season.

Wilson declared innocence and reasoned it must have been a clerical error by the official score keeper. "I had nothing to do with that," he said.

But he did have something to do with having his players giddy about their new season and relaxed to take on the mighty Wings. He made the entire group crowd into the Leafs bench to take in the full 20-minute pregame ceremony to watch the Wings raise the franchise's 11th Stanley Cup banner to the rafters.

It was a special evening for Wilson, too. For the first time, he was coaching the team he broke into the NHL with three decades ago.

He also strategizing against the team his late father, Larry, and uncle Johnny played for and later coached.

Johnny was one of six former Detroit players, along with Gordie Howe, Alex Delvecchio, Ted Lindsay, Dennis Hextall and Doug Brown to carry the latest Stanley Cup banner out on to the ice and hand it off to Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Lidstrom, Tomas Holmstrom and Darren McCarty, the five Wings who have won Stanley Cups in 1997, 1998, 2002 and for the fourth time last spring.

Wilson caught up with his colourful uncle in the morning.

"He said the Red Wings accuse him of being a spy," Wilson said. "But I reminded him that I hardly win in this building. He may be spying on me. He could be a double agent."

The Leafs only gave Detroit three power-play opportunities, with the final chance coming after a delay of game infraction when Mayers accidentally cleared the puck over the glass with 30 seconds remaining.

Holmstrom scored in the second man-advantage situation for his second goal of the game to make it 3-2 with 10 minutes and 40 seconds remaining, but Toronto held off their opponents to protect the lead that Pavel Kubina, Moore and Kulemin gave their club with goals in each period.

Leafs Notes

Maple Leafs defencemen Anton Stralman and Ian White were healthy scratches last night, and Jeff Finger continued his recovery from a foot injury … The Red Wings raised their Stanley Cup banner before the puck was dropped last night. It is the second time since the Leafs won their last Stanley Cup in 1967 that Toronto players have been part of another team's championship celebrations on opening night. The first time was the New Jersey Devils in October of 2003 ... Detroit's opening day 22-player roster and three injured reserve players was made up of eight Canadians, seven Swedes, five Americans, two Slovakians, a Russian, a Czech and a Finn ... Toronto's 23-player makeup included 10 Canadians, three Americans, two Finns, two Czechs, two Russians, two Swedes, a Ukrainian and a Kazak.

Up next:

Montreal Canadiens at Air Canada Centre tomorrow.

Game time 7 p.m. ET.

TV CBC.