DETROIT ? The Detroit Red Wings’ biggest worry going into these supposedly one-sided Stanley Cup finals seemed to be when to schedule their victory parade.

They’re about to learn if that expressway to the Cup has merely hit a bump in the road, the kind they’ve encountered twice before this spring, or a Detroit-sized pothole that can swallow up an entire team or a series.

All but conceded the Cup before Carolina’s surprising 3-2 overtime victory in Game One on Tuesday night, the Red Wings realize they can’t panic, just as they didn’t come undone when they trailed Vancouver 2-0 in the first round or Colorado 3-2 in the Western Conference finals.

But those weren’t the Stanley Cup finals, where the Game One winner goes on to win the series nearly 80 percent of the time and where strange things have happened to big favorites who lose the opener.

“It was incredible, it was disappointing,” Red Wings forward Brendan Shanahan said. “They were a patient club, and we weren’t. We were a stupid club.”

The Red Wings, so eager to put the game away, rushed to take poor shots even after going up 1-0 and 2-1 and wound up going 1-for-7 on the power play. That gave a big confidence lift to a Hurricanes team that coach Paul Maurice acknowledged was extremely nervous at the start, and Carolina went on to win on Ron Francis’ goal 58 seconds into overtime its seventh overtime victory in eight chances this postseason.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Red Wings forward Brett Hull said Wednesday. “We just found that out for real.”

Detroit coach Scotty Bowman often cites hockey history, probably because he’s been involved in so much of it as an eight-time Cup winner. He remembers when his favored Red Wings lost Game One to New Jersey in 1995. They never won a game in the series.

That’s why Game Two tonight at Joe Louis Arena might be the key game of the series.

“Obviously, the second game is always a crucial game in a series for me,” Bowman said.