Senators 3, Wild 2
SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- The Ottawa Senators are out of the playoff race, but they refuse to go quietly into the offseason.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau had a goal and two assists Thursday as the Senators won for the second time in as many nights, beating the Minnesota Wild 3-2.
Cody Ceci scored the game-winner in the third period for Ottawa, which got a goal and an assist from Erik Karlsson and a 23-save performance from goalie Craig Anderson. Bobby Ryan recorded two assists.
The result snapped Minnesota's season-best, six-game winning streak.
The Wild, who are likely to make their fourth consecutive playoff trip but have not yet clinched, got goals from Zach Parise and Erik Haula along with 19 saves from Devan Dubnyk.
Minnesota (38-29-11) has four games remaining and is five points up on the Colorado Avalanche in the race for the final playoff spot in the West.
Ceci's goal came off two fortunate caroms, as his centering pass from behind the goal line deflected off Haula's skates and Dubnyk's stick, landing in the net with 3:57 to play.
Haula tied the game earlier in the third off a pass from Jason Pominville. With Anderson down, Haula lifted a rising shot just under the crossbar for his career-best 14th goal of the season. Haula now has a point in 10 consecutive games, which ties a Wild franchise record.
Ottawa (36-33-9) had the better of the play early, bottling up Minnesota in its own zone and outshooting the Wild in a scoreless first period.
The worse news for Minnesota came when defenseman Jared Spurgeon blocked a shot by Ryan early in the game and was injured on the play. Spurgeon left the game and did not return, forcing the Wild to play with five defenders.
The Senators took the lead early in the second period on Karlsson's second goal in three games. Skating hard into the attack zone, Karlsson pounced on a puck that Wild forward Nino Niederreiter looked to clear and got a wrist shot off that fooled Dubnyk on the glove side.
Parise tied the score with less than nine minutes to play in the middle period, tapping in the rebound of a long shot by defenseman Marco Scandella.
Parise was tied up with Senators defenseman Cody Ceci at the top of the crease when Anderson made a stick save on Scandella's shot from the blue line. With an arm around Ceci's neck, Parise still managed to shovel the loose puck past Anderson to get the Wild on the scoreboard. It was Parise's team-leading 25th goal of the season.
The tie was short-lived, however, as Pageau tipped a backhander by Ryan, changing the puck's trajectory just enough that it found a gap between Dubnyk's knees.
NOTES: One of the better-known prospects in Minnesota's pipeline made his pro debut Wednesday. F Mario Lucia, son of University of Minnesota coach Don Lucia, skated for the Iowa Wild in the AHL team's 3-2 home loss to the Manitoba Moose. Lucia signed with the Wild after four seasons of college hockey at Notre Dame. ... Senators C Scott Gomez was back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the two previous games. He took the place of RW Mark Stone, who returned to Ottawa after Wednesday's game in Winnipeg. Stone was injured in a hard collision with Jets D Dustin Byfuglien during the Senators' 2-1 win. ... A joint fundraising effort by the Wild and Chicago Blackhawks to aid an injured player raised more than $177,500 in the past week. Matt Olson, a minor league player for the Chicago Cougars who is originally from Isanti, Minn., suffered a spinal cord injury in a game last month.