ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Cody Ceci got a goal with 3:57 left that deflected off two Minnesota players to help the Ottawa Senators beat the Wild 3-2 on Thursday night.
Ceci's ninth goal of the season bounced off Erik Haula and goaltender Devan Dubnyk's skate. Erik Karlsson and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored, Craig Anderson made 23 saves and Ottawa won its second straight game a night after being officially eliminated from the playoffs.
Zach Parise scored his team-high 25th goal for Minnesota, which had its season-high six-game winning streak snapped. Haula tied it early in the third, but the Wild fell to 2-21-5 this season when trailing after two periods. Dubnyk made 19 saves.
Minnesota leads idle Colorado by five points for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Pageau also had two assists for the Senators, and Karlsson added an assist to run his NHL defenseman-leading total to 78 points this season.
With playoff position on the line, Minnesota struggled to get much going against the pesky Senators. Haula scored to tie the franchise-record with a 10-game point streak.
The Wild nearly pulled ahead with less than 7 minutes left when Matt Dumba appeared to knock a loose puck into the net, but the whistle had blown after Anderson went down on his back to block a shot.
After a scoreless first, Karlsson made it 1-0 with his 15th of the season after Minnesota's Nino Niederreiter failed to corral a cross-ice pass. Karlsson assisted on Pageau's 18th goal to give him the most points in a season by a defenseman since he set a career high with 78 in 2011-12.
Game notes
Minnesota D Jared Spurgeon left the game early in the first period after blocking a shot from Senators F Bobby Ryan and didn't return. ... Parise has six goals in the past four games. ... Ottawa F Mark Stone was scratched with a chest injury after taking a big hit from Winnipeg's Dustin Byfuglien a night earlier. It was the first game Stone, who leads Senators forwards with 61 points, has missed this season due to injury. ... Scott Gomez returned to the lineup after being scratched for two games. ... Wild F Thomas Vanek was scratched with an upper-body injury. ... Chris Porter returned after being scratched for three games. ... F David Jones missed his second straight game with an illness. ... D Ben Harpur made his NHL debut for the Senators. Harpur was a fourth-round draft choice by the team in 2013.
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