Tracert vs Telnet to confirm connectivity

On diagnosing a problem connecting to a website I have a tracert that appears to fail at an intermediary server (not the target domain) but a Telnet to the target domain completes. Is it possible for the domain where the tracert stops to be filtering out the IP (perhaps due to out of date bogon filter) but for Telnet to go through, or is completion of the Telnet an indication that the problem is at the target domain? Thanks.

Possibly a stupid question because I would have started with this before tracert but does "Ping" work to the destination via IP and Hostname? I ask this because "telnet is a TCP based protocol that can also be used to test a variety of services for connectivity. You can use it to test for SMTP, SQL or Remote Desktop connectivity. This is a good test to use for service or port blocks resulting from a firewall configuration." and Tracert sends" Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request messages to the destination. It does this by incrementally increasing the Time To Live (TTL) values to find the path taken to the destination address."
Both quotes from :
help.maximumasp.com/KB/a445/connectivity-testing-with-ping-telnet-tracert-and-pathping-.aspx
Looks like they take a bit different approaches to get a similar goal, thats why I asked the Ping question.