Despite the return of team captain Dylan Larkin to the lineup, the Detroit Red Wings suffered a costly 3-2 regulation defeat on home ice to the shorthanded Ottawa Senators.
In a game with major postseason stakes against a shorthanded opponent, the Detroit Red Wings fell short of rising to the occasion on home ice.
The Ottawa Senators, who entered the contest trailing Detroit by a single point in the standings, leapfrogged them with a 3-2 victory at Little Caesars Arena.
The Senators, who are 8-2 in their last 10 games, now have 85 points on the season compared to Detroit's 84.
The Red Wings entered the contest on the outside looking in at the postseason, with a 51 percent chance of advancing at puck drop. A regulation win would have raised those odds to 66 percent, but the loss dropped them to 37 percent.
Making the setback even more difficult to stomach for the Red Wings, who welcomed back team captain Dylan Larkin after a seven-game absence, the Senators had played the night before in Manhattan, and were also missing top defensemen Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot.
Instead, it was a rookie by the name of Carter Yakemchuk who made his NHL debut a memorable one.
Yakemchuk picked up his first NHL point by assisting on Brady Tkachuk's power-play goal, giving the Senators a 1-0 lead in the first period just minutes after the Red Wings had a would-be power-play goal of their own disallowed after replays showed they were offside.
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Yakemchuk then tallied his first NHL goal early in the second period, beating goaltender John Gibson through a screen after the Red Wings failed to clear the puck.
Not long after that, veteran Lars Eller increased Ottawa's lead to 3-0, beating Gibson glove side from in close. At that point, boos began to rain down from the increasingly restless sellout crowd of Red Wings fans.
They soon had a reason to cheer, as Dominik Shine redirected a pass from Simon Edvinsson past Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark, giving them a spark of hope.
Larkin buried a power-play goal early in the third period, bringing Detroit back to within a goal and bringing the energy back into the venue.
Unfortunately, it's as close as they would get. Not only did Detroit fail to convert on a critical power-play opportunity late in regulation, but they also had three prime scoring chances denied by Ullmark in the waning moments.
Detroit struggled to gain the zone on the ensuing power play, which came after Ridley Greig leveled rookie Emmitt Finnie along the half-wall. Finnie remained down on the ice for several moments and needed assistance from trainer Piet VanZant to get off; he was subsequently placed in concussion protocol.
There are still 11 games remaining in the regular season for the Red Wings, who now head on the road for a fourth straight divisional matchup, this time against the first-place Buffalo Sabres, the NHL's hottest team and biggest surprise story since mid-December.
While there is still a path for the Red Wings to break their playoff drought, their margin of error continues to shrink by the day.
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