Improving to 5-3-1, the win snapped a two-game skid for the Panthers. At the other end of the ice, the Senators fell to 4-4-0 and have now lost two straight games after winning four in a row.
"It was huge for us," Barkov said of coming out on top in a divisonal battle. "We wanted to get the win before we go on a long road trip. I think we played really good. In the second period we had some trouble in our own zone and gave up a little too much for them, but at the same time we battled back and won the game."
Flipping the "swag switch" from off to on in the building, Carter Verhaeghe opened the scoring when he collected a slick spin-o-rama pass from Matthew Tkachuk and fired a top-shelf snipe past Anton Forsberg from the high slot to put the Panthers on top 1-0 at 7:59 of the first period.
Doubling the lead on the power play, Barkov took a pass from Tkachuk and wired home his first goal of the season from the top of the right circle to make it 2-0 at 11:54. After weathering an early-season drought, the Panthers have now scored on the power play in two straight games.
After 20 minutes, the Panthers owned a 26-4 advantage in shots on goal.
"Shots were pretty good for us," Barkov said. "We want to play like that every period. At the same time, you know they're going to regroup and be a little better than that, and they were."
With a late power play carrying over from the first period, the Senators struck just 37 seconds into the second when Shane Pinto one-timed his team-leading sixth goal of the season straight past Spencer Knight and into the cage from the right circle to trim Ottawa's deficit down to 2-1.
Just 2:46 later, Brady Tkachuk scored for the Senators to even up the game at 2-2.
"Clearly that's as good as a start as [we're going to have]," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "It was an unusual second period because once a team has a couple breaks that go in your net, I think you have a tendency to tighten. After we came out of that, I thought it was a pretty good hockey game."
Putting the Panthers back on top heading into the second intermission, Verhaeghe found the back of the net again when he teed up a silky-smooth dish from Montour and blasted a blistering one-timer past Forsberg from the right circle to make it 3-2 with only 37 seconds left in the period.
Joining Verhaeghe in the two-goal club, Pinto tied the game for the Senators in the third period when he deflected the puck past Knight to make it 3-3 with 8:04 remaining in regulation.
Sending the most-satisfying ping throughout the arena, Montour regained the lead for the Panthers when took a pass from Barkov, dropped down to one knee and buried a one-timer from the right circle to make it 4-3 with 3:32 left on the clock.
Showing a lot of unselfishness, Anton Lundell passed up an easy goal in favor of setting up Tkachuk, who got the better of his brother Brady on the scoresheet, for an empty-net goal to seal the 5-3 win with just 14 seconds left in the contest.
