DETROIT

O n the surface, the series has seemingly unfolded in exactly the same manner.

Just like last year, the Detroit Red Wings have started the Stanley Cup final by holding serve twice at home, both times by suffocating the attack of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Just like last year, the Pens are now looking at having to win four straight or at least four out of five to take the Cup. Only one team, the '71 Canadiens, has ever won the title after losing the first two games of the final.

But that's just the surface story. The reality is this year's final is very, very different from last year, both in terms of the intensity of the competition and the nature of the two games played so far.

The Wings, battered by injuries, have been outshot in both games and either outplayed or at best fought to a draw.

Yet they lead two games to none.

The reason, aside from the fact Justin Abdelkader is outscoring both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin combined, is Chris Osgood.

This, it seems clear, is the year Osgood may finally get his due along with his fourth Stanley Cup ring. It may be the year the hockey world starts to really look at him differently.

Goodness, by the time this is over, we may be wondering aloud if he should be Canada's goalie next winter at the Vancouver Olympics.

Two posts helped Osgood last night, as did one save by Henrik Zetterberg lying on the goal line. But to say Osgood was lucky would be wrong.

While Marc-Andre Fleury at the other end was making another major error on a flutter shot in the third by Abdelkader, Osgood was again mistake free, poised and very much a leader in the defensive zone for the Wings.

He made enormous saves at key times, including:

A left pad stop on Ruslan Fedotenko's breakaway in the first period with the game scoreless.

A brilliant left arm stop three minutes into the second on Malkin that would have given the visitors a 2-0 lead.

Another left leg save, this time on Crosby after Crosby had finally broken free of Brian Rafalski and Nicklas Lidstrom for a clean look with seven minutes to play.

They were all saves at the right times, an Osgood trademark.

In essence, in two games in which the Wings have played without MVP candidate Pavel Datsyuk, veteran centre Kris Draper, winger Tomas Kopecky and defenceman Andreas Lilja, the champs have played to perhaps 60 per cent of their capacity and made an inordinate amount of defensive errors.

Yet they still lead the series 2-0.

So while the replacements for the injured – Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Ville Leino and Jonathan Ericsson – are getting all kinds of praise, none of this happens without Osgood being rock-solid and stopping 62 of 64 Pittsburgh drives. Given the fact he was so lousy earlier this season that he was sent home for 10 days to get his head together, this story is even more compelling.

Fleury hasn't helped his team's cause, both with his inability to figure out the tricky end boards of The Joe in the series opener on Saturday or with his terrible error on Abdelkader's 40-foot wrister off a one-on-two break last night.

Osgood, by contrast, is like the football quarterback who may not throw the 60-yard bomb but protects the ball, doesn't turn it over and gets it to the playmakers at the right time.

Assuming, as most do, that Detroit coach Mike Babcock will be Canada's Olympic coach, it seems unthinkable Osgood wouldn't at the very least merit an invitation to the summer orientation camp.

He never before has been in the Olympic mix, or the World Cup mix, for that matter.

But with the Olympic goaltending picture a bit muddled at the moment, Osgood is as good a candidate as anyone.