"We have the mindset that we're going to come back no matter what," said Barkov, who showed off his patented backhand in the skills competition. "We played a good game. Even in the first period down 2-0, and in the second period down 3-0, I feel like nobody even had one thought that we were going to lose this game."
Improving to 44-14-6 and maintaining a seven-point lead atop the Atlantic Division, the Panthers lead the league with three comeback victories while trailing by at least three goals this season.
"I think we've done it all year," Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said of the team's impressive never-say-die mentality. "There's a good self-belief. They have fun together. They love to compete, and it showed again tonight."
Slipping behind the defense after the puck took an odd bounce, Alex Formenton broke the ice for the Senators when his breakaway attempt clanged off the crossbar, clipped off the back of Sergei Bobrovsky and trickled into the net to make it a 1-0 game at 7:54 into the first period.
Doubling the lead, Artem Zub followed up on a point shot from Josh Norris, leapt on the ensuing rebound and settled down the puck before wiring home a far-side snipe to make it 2-0 at 15:26.
In the second period, the Senators added to their lead when Tyler Ennis intercepted a clearing attempt in Florida's zone before sending a pass over to Dylan Gambrell. Carrying the puck into the right circle, Gambrell then slipped a shot through Bobrovsky to make it a 3-0 contest at 6:47.
"We know we have enough talent to score some goals," Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau said. "Some nights we're going to be against a good goalie. He made some good saves. We had a lot of shots, but we didn't give up."
Behind that attitude, the Cats finally caught their break.
While on the power play, Anthony Duclair teed up a pass from Claude Giroux and blasted a blistering one-timer past Anton Forsberg to make it 3-1 at 8:55. Just over two minutes later, Patric Hornqvist followed that up with a goal of his own to cut the deficit down to 3-2 at 9:57.
Pulling their goaltender to gain a 6-on-5 advantage with time winding down in the third period, Barkov, following a clutch faceoff win from Giroux in the offensive zone, threaded a shot from the point through heavy traffic and past Forsberg to make it 3-3 with just 2:16 left in regulation.
"That's what he brings us to," Barkov said of Giroux, who was one of three important deadline acquisitions for the Panthers. "He knows all the situations, how to play them right. Faceoffs are a huge part of the game, and he's really good at them. You can trust him. You can talk about different plays when he's taking the faceoff because there's a good chance he's winning it."
In overtime, Bobrovsky and Forsberg each made three saves, with most of them being eye-popping stops. And when the Senators were sent to the power play with only 1:27 left in the extra frame, both Bobrovsky and Florida's penalty kill came up huge to get to the shootout.
Carrying that momentum into the skills competition, Bobrovsky denied all three of Ottawa's shooters, while Barkov scored the only goal the Panthers would need to lock in the 4-3 win.
