Prior to the goal, Sergei Bobrovsky also made two incredible saves to keep the game alive.
"I thought Bob came up with those two great saves that set it up for a great play," Quenneville said. "What a move by Ek, I guess you could say on both [goals]. I don't think I've ever seen someone score two overtime goals in the same game. That can go down as one of the better moves that we've seen. A lot of good things happened. We worked hard across the board."
Netting his second-career hat trick, it was Carter Verhaeghe that stole the show leading up to overtime.
Opening the scoring while most fans were likely still in line for concessions, Verhaeghe gave the Panthers an incredibly early 1-0 lead when he took a pass from Noel Acciari and roofed a shot over Anthon Khudobin and into the twine 24 seconds after the puck dropped in the first period.
Taking back the momentum later in the period, Denis Gurianov evened things up for the Stars when he beat Bobrovsky from the doorstep after a nice pass from Jamie Benn to make it 1-1 at 8:01. Then, just 1:56 later, John Klingberg went top-shelf to suddenly put Dallas up 2-1 at 9:57.
But scoring again to pull Florida even heading into the first intermission, Verhaeghe poked in a rebound on the power play following a shot from Owen Tippett to make it a 2-2 game at 17:00.
"Outstanding game right from the first shift," Quenneville said of Verhaeghe.
Finding the back of the net for a third time to complete his second-career hat trick, Verhaeghe forced a turnover on the penalty kill, skated right into the left circle and then wired a top-shelf screamer over Khudobin's glove to give the Cats a 3-2 lead at 17:40 of the second period.
Unfortunately, even though it came in the Lone Star State, no ten-gallon hats were thrown.
"We lost a couple straight there and everyone had to step up tonight," said Verhaeghe, who finished the game with a career-high four points. "I'm lucky a couple went in for me tonight."
Tying up the game just three minutes into the third period, Joel L'Esperance converted on a long re-direction from the high slot to make it 3-3 and eventually get the game to overtime.
In the extra frame, both teams had a few chances before Ekblad appeared to net the game-winner when he blasted a feed from Frank Vatrano just inside the post with 44 seconds left on the clock. Upon further review, however, it was ruled that Ekblad entered the zone offside.
Of course, that goal would only come off the board momentarily.
A little over 30 seconds after having victory snatched away, Ekblad took a pass from Jonathan Huberdeau, deftly pulled the puck to his backhand, and lifted a shot over Khudobin and into the cage to lock down the 4-3 win with, oddly enough, technically his second goal of the overtime.
"I was very discouraged," Ekblad said of his mood after the offside call. "That hurt, especially because in that situation it's kind of the last thing you're thinking about when you have a clear-cut, 2-on-1 [rush], to stay onside. Looking down at it, it hurt. But, right after, Ulfy [Panthers assistant coach Ulf Samuelsson] put me right back out and gave me the opportunity. Bob made a huge blocker save. That's the only reason we were able to do that and go win that game."