DETROIT — The Rangers have lost three games in a row for the first time since November.

After giving up the first goal for the fifth straight game, the Rangers managed to tie the score early in the second period before the Red Wings powered ahead to hand the visitors a 4-1 loss at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday night.

It’s just the fourth time this season the Rangers have lost three straight games.

Detroit, which is in the hunt for a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, has now won seven of its last eight games.

The Rangers announced prior to the start of the game that Vitali Kravtsov and Jake Leschyshyn were unavailable due to “roster management reasons,” code that a possible trade involving the players could be in the works. As a result, head coach Gerard Gallant had to play with 11 forwards and seven defensemen.

Defenseman Ben Harpur dressed for the first time in six games. He had been a healthy scratch since the Rangers acquired blueliner Niko Mikkola as part of the deal with the Blues that brought Vladimir Tarasenko to New York on Feb. 9. Despite taking line rushes during warm-ups as a forward, Harpur skated as a defenseman Thursday and logged 2:50 of ice time.

Kravtsov hasn’t played since Feb. 10, and has been a healthy scratch in 11 of the last 12 games, but Leschyshyn had been the Rangers’ fourth-line center for the previous five games and 13 of the last 14 games.

Defensive lapses continued to plague the Rangers. The three power plays they handed the Red Wings didn’t help their cause, either. Detroit looked like the hungrier team and capitalized.

After former Ranger Andrew Copp opened the scoring on the rush early in the first period, Vincent Trocheck made it a 1-1 game by taking the shot himself on a two-on-one rush alongside Alexis Lafreniere at 6:06 of the second period.

Tyler Motte then turned the puck over at the blue line, and the Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin kept it in, leading to Filip Zadina’s go-ahead goal barely two minutes after the Ranger had tied it. Michael Rasmussen then scored into a wide-open net with less than two minutes to go in the second, when Jaroslav Halak was drawn out of the crease to make the initial save.

Early in the third period, the Rangers were charged with too many men on the ice, putting Detroit on the power play. Filip Hronek made it count, unloading a wrister from the top of the zone for a 4-1 lead at the 4:51 mark.

Frustration clearly hit the Rangers, who outshot the Red Wings 31-23, later in the game. A couple of tussles broke out, but it didn’t do much to jump-start the Rangers’ offense.