"If you look at the box score at the end of the night, you will see that the team that takes care of special teams wins the games," Faulk said. "Both our penalty kill and power play have been brutal to start the season, but they were huge tonight."
The Red Wings were outshot 36-12 in the first two periods.
"That was 100 percent inexcusable," coach Jeff Blashill said. "When you oversleep, it takes you a long time to get moving, and it took us two periods to get going."
The Hurricanes held a 14-0 advantage in shots on goal before Red Wings defenseman Dennis Cholowski forced Mrazek to make a pad save at 13:31 of the first period. Mrazek also made a save against Justin Abdelkader on a breakaway at 15:34.
"It's one of the hardest things, not seeing a shot and then facing a 2-on-1 and a breakaway," Mrazek said. "I was trying to go behind the net and play the puck just to feel like a part of the game."
Athanasiou scored at 12:02 of the third period when he redirected Thomas Vanek's feed past Mrazek to make it 2-1.