“Obviously, we like the way things went in the games and this whole trip was a special, special experience,” Barkov said. “We’re happy to get the wins and have a good time here.”
Barkov, the Panthers captain, was confident about his team, which showed its mettle in winning the Cup last season in a seven-game series against the Edmonton Oilers.
Now, his confidence is even more pronounced.
“We had a really good chemistry before, but it feels like spending so much time together with different activities; went to sauna, went to dinner, eating Finnish food together, like for some of the guys the first time,” he said. “That obviously makes your chemistry on the team better.
“I think the cherry on top was these two really hard games that we played against Dallas and coming up with the win in both games. It was amazing. It tells a lot about our team.”
Evan Rodrigues scored the first goal for the second straight game, redirecting a shot from Mikkola into the top far corner at 14:47 of the first period to give Florida a 1-0 lead.
Matthew Tkachuk made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 8:47 of the second period.
Dallas closed the gap to 2-1 at 11:22 when Evgenii Dadonov scored a power-play goal.
Duchene, who had his second straight two-point game, tied it 2-2 just 34 seconds later at 11:56 with his team-best seventh goal, depositing the rebound of a shot by Miro Heiskanen.