DETROIT, June 11 — The Washington Capitals nearly doubled their shot production from Tuesday night's disappointing loss, and goaltender Olaf Kolzig turned in a Herculean effort, denying 55 shots.

Neither was enough against the defending Stanley Cup champions, as the Capitals improved their play tonight yet lost, 5-4, to the Detroit Red Wings in overtime of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals at Joe Louis Arena.

Detroit's Kris Draper scored the game-winning goal, his first of the playoffs, 15 minutes 24 seconds into the overtime period, in which the Capitals were outshot 12-3.

As Detroit players mobbed Draper, Kolzig sat on the ice like an exhausted teddy bear, feet splayed out, heaving a giant sigh after the frantic night's work. In the locker room afterward, he was coated in sweat, but still completely composed as he commented on the loss.

"I don't think we were as tough as we should have been," Kolzig said. "We've got to think about the mistakes we made . . . and battle through it."

Kolzig credited the Red Wings with a well-earned victory, in which they outshot the Capitals, 60-33. "They've got a lot of offense," Kolzig said. "We've got to respect their ability, but not respect them. I think we gave them a little too much respect tonight."

Playing in their first Stanley Cup finals, the Capitals had hoped to come away from Games 1 and 2 in Detroit with a split. Instead they trail 2-0 in the best-of-seven series, which moves to Washington's MCI Center for Games 3 and 4 on Saturday and Tuesday.

Entering tonight's game, Coach Ron Wilson had asked his players to take more shots than the 17 they managed in Tuesday's loss. They did, building a 3-1 lead at the end of the second period. But the Red Wings twice erased two-goal deficits in the frenetic third period, in which they outshot Washington a staggering 20-7. That's one shot on goal every minute.

"He was making some great saves," Wilson said of Kolzig, "I think our defense looked like it was tired. Olie was fine. You couldn't fault him on any of them."

Detroit's Steve Yzerman started the scoring 7:49 into the first period.

The Capitals' Peter Bondra answered 1:51 into the second period on a controversial play that had Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood thinking play had been stopped.

Less than five minutes later, Washington winger Chris Simon broke the tie with his first goal of the playoffs-a shock to both Simon and the Red Wings, who hadn't trailed at home in more than 266 minutes of play.

Adam Oates scored to close the second period with a 3-1 Capitals lead.

The Red Wings roared back in the third period, with Yzerman connecting on a short-handed effort to narrow Washington's lead to 3-2. "That was huge, obviously," Kolzig said.

Washington regained the momentum 28 seconds later when Joe Juneau scored to put Washington up 4-2.

"I thought maybe that would take a little bit of the wind out of them," Kolzig said, "but they kept coming right back."

Detroit's Martin Lapointe got past Kolzig to pull his team to 4-3.

Washington's Esa Tikkanen had a chance to put the game out of reach but muffed the opportunity. Tikkanen zoomed down the ice with Red Wing defender Jamie Macoun on his on the left and slowed as he came up on Osgood. He drew his stick back as if to take a slap shot, then steered left. Osgood fell on the ice to block it, and Tikkanen skated around him. He shot from the edge of the crease, but hooked it and the puck skimmed in front of the net.

After scoring the biggest goal of his career, Draper showered accolades on Kolzig, whom no one faulted for the loss. "He covers a lot of net high and low and makes save after save," Draper said. "We were fortunate to win tonight."

Draper had slipped onto the ice almost unnoticed on a line change and found himself wide open in front of the Capitals net when teammate Martin Lapointe hit him with a pass. Kolzig said later he had no idea where the game-winning 60th shot of the night was coming from.

"Our defense was trying to clear the puck," Kolzig said. "I just couldn't get there."

Afterward, Kolzig downplayed the toll that the 60-shot night had taken on him. "My gear is a little wet," he said, "and I lost a little bit of water. But mentally I was in a zone in overtime. I felt pretty big out there. They made a great play to get the overtime winner."