Ben Chiarot gave Detroit a jolt, but the Red Wings never responded

That is what makes this one sting.

The Red Wings came into this game in the middle of a tight Eastern playoff race, so this was not some harmless game in early March. It was a scoreboard swing they badly needed.

Instead, Detroit spent too much of the night chasing it.

The Rangers grabbed control, and the Red Wings never found the push that the moment demanded. Detroit did get one late, but by then the damage was already done.

That is where Chiarot stepped in.

He tried to change the temperature with a big scrap against Will Cuylle, the kind of moment teams hope can wake up the bench and drag everybody back into the fight. In this case, it did not spark a thing.

Detroit still looked flat after it.

That is the hard part for McLellan and the room. You can live with losing a track meet or getting goalied once in a while. This felt heavier because the urgency should have been there from the opening faceoff.

The Red Wings have been hanging around the race, and every game like this carries extra weight now.

Leaving points on the table at this stage is one thing. Getting handled in a game that meant this much is another.

Chiarot did what veterans do. He tried to stir the pot, bring some bite, and give his bench a jolt.

But hockey does not hand out points for emotion.

Detroit got its late goal, but it was way too late to change the story.

The story was the loss, the missed chance, and the kind of result that can hurt for more than one night in a race this tight.