PITTSBURGH -- Every once in a while, like an excited kid around the Christmas tree, Chris Osgood admits he takes a peek.

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For an instant, his focus flashes away from the puck to check out which of the Pittsburgh Penguins superstars is bearing down on him.

"Most of the time when they're shooting, I'm so focused on the puck itself, I don't know who it is," Detroit Red Wings goalie Osgood said. "But there are times when I realize it's (Sidney) Crosby, or (Evgeni) Malkin, or (Marian) Hossa."

He may give them a second look, but Osgood seldom gives the situation a second thought.

Don't look now, but hockey's favourite Detroit whipping boy has put the Red Wings to within a win of whipping the Penguins.

A decade ago, when Osgood backstopped the Wings to a Stanley Cup title, some labelled him the worst goalie ever to win a Cup.

PROVING INVALUABLE

After Saturday's 2-1 victory over the Penguins in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final series left Detroit up 3-1 in the series and a win away from capturing another Cup, only a fool would suggest that Osgood isn't a huge reason why that is so.

Generally, the goaltender gets the bulk of the attention showered upon him when a team wins the Stanley Cup. Think Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Not Osgood. He's treated like the Paris Hilton of the hockey set. He's famous, but nobody seems to know why.

To outsiders, Osgood is the perplexing problem in the Wings' lineup.

He keeps on winning, pushing legends aside and yet, it seems as if he really isn't doing all that much behind the defensive dynamo that is Detroit.

That all changed Saturday.

Quite simply, he was the best player on the ice.

While he didn't face as many shots (23) as Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury (30), Osgood made multiple point-blank stops on Crosby, Pascal Dupuis and Marian Hossa. He stopped Evgeni Malkin twice to help the Wings survive a two-man disadvantage for 1:27 in the third period.

After deflecting shots from some of the National Hockey League's best shooters, Osgood proved equally adept at deflecting the praise for his effort.

"We blocked a ton of shots and we were able to get in the shooting lanes, get the puck, retrieve it and get it down the ice," he said of the successful third-period penalty kill that preserved the win.

Others in the Detroit dressing room are willing to step up and point out that their goalie is their go-to guy.

"Unbelievable," was how Wings centre Kris Draper described Osgood's performance.

"Not just on the five-on-three situation, but throughout the whole game I thought he made some key saves," added Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom.

You might think facing a smorgasbord of snipers of the variety Pittsburgh can throw at a netminder would give a guy sleepless nights.

Not Osgood. When he thinks about facing Crosby, Malkin and company, he gets all tingly inside.

"It's fun playing against this team because they skate well and it's end-to-end action," Osgood said.

TOP GOALIE

Osgood jumped into the No. 1 role for Detroit in 1993 at 21 when injuries scuttled the veterans on the depth chart ahead of him.