ST. PAUL, Minn. — This night wasn’t totally pointless for the Senators.

After learning they were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs less than 24 hours earlier, the Senators put up a brave face and then put their best foot forward with a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center to wrap up this back-to-back series with two wins.

The Senators will tell you they haven’t gotten the bounces all season but they sure got one here as Cody Ceci scored from below the goal-line when the puck bounced off Erik Haula’s skate and by Devan Dubnyk with 3:57 left in the third. Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Erik Karlsson also chipped in.

Only Haula and Zach Parise were able to beat Craig Anderson, who picked up his 30th win of the season.

Pageau, who had a three-point effort, gave the Senators a 2-1 lead at 14:34 of the second, but Haula tied it up at 4:33 of the third before Ceci’s goal.

Karlsson, who tied a career high with 78 points, opened the scoring with his 15th and the 99th of his career when he blasted it by Dubnyk from the circle at 3:44 of the second. It didn’t take long for the Wild to tie it up as Parise scored his 25th of the season when he was left alone in front at 11:13 of the second.

“They’re playing good hockey and we knew that going in. We found the motivation we need to stick with it all the way to the end and to get a nice little bit of puck luck. That’s what we needed,” said Karlsson.

“We knew they were going to come at us hard. They need the wins more than we do and we knew they were going to be desperate. We found a way to stick with it all the way to the end.”

The Senators did it the right way Thursday under tough circumstances.

The Senators didn’t find out until well after the win over Winnipeg Wednesday that they were eliminated, but this came as no surprise in a disastrous season.

“It’s funny we start getting (the bounces) now when we’re eliminated, but we’ll take them,” said Ceci, who was trying to pass to Ryan. “It’s nice to finish strong in a season and that’s what we’re trying to do right now. It was just a fortunate bounce that ended up being the winner.”

After making the playoffs last spring on the final day of the season, the Senators arrived at camp with hope they’d be able to pick up where they left off. No, they didn’t expect a 21-3-3 start (like last year’s finish), but they felt they could comfortably return to the playoffs.

If there is one word to describe this team, it’s inconsistency. The Senators have been plagued by it all year and the win over Minnesota is only the ninth time this year Ottawa has won two straight. Twice, they were able to string together four-game winning streaks to keep themselves in the picture.

“You’ve still got to play. You’ve got to show up, be professional and put in the work,” said Anderson after the win. “You’ve got to put on the work boots and make sure you don’t feel embarrassed. That’s the worst thing as a professional athlete is feeling embarrassed.”

This is the fourth time since 2007-08 the Senators have missed the playoffs and they’ve won only one round during that time — in 2013 when they eliminated the Montreal Canadiens in Round 1 but lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Round 2.

This year is a disappointment because this team should have been better. Karlsson has had a spectacular year and is a candidate for his third Norris Trophy while many nights Anderson has had to be the club’s best player because of the number of shots the Senators give up.

While injuries to forwards Clarke MacArthur (concussion), Kyle Turris (ankle) and veteran defenceman Chris Phillips (back) didn’t help, the Senators’ special teams left a lot to be desired. They’ve got a power play that is ranked 28th in the league and now hasn’t scored in a franchise-record 14 straight games.

During a press conference last week, owner Eugene Melnyk promised that “key changes” will be made. GM Bryan Murray has to decide whether he wants to stay on in his current job or move into a senior adviser’s role and then a decision on coach Dave Cameron and his staff will be made.

“Whenever you don’t win, there’s always change,” said winger Chris Neil. “I’ve been around a long time and have seen that’s what it comes down to. Your owner, your GM, your coaches, everyone wants to win and when you don’t win, there’s always changes.”

The Senators can now focus on playing out the string. They don’t have any other choice.

“We set ourselves up early in the year by getting in a good position where we could have a slump and somehow we couldn’t get out of that slump,” said Karlsson. “At the end of the year, we’re going to have to sit down to decide what went wrong, where it went wrong and what we’re going to have to move forward.”