OTTAWA, Ontario — Aleksander Barkov had the tying goal late in the third period before scoring the shootout winner, helping the Florida Panthers overcome a three-goal deficit and beat the Ottawa Senators 4-3 on Saturday night.
Anthony Duclair and Patric Hornqvist also scored for Florida, which extended its hold on the Eastern Conference lead. Recently acquired Claude Giroux had two assists and Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves.
“We just have the mindset that we’re going to come back no matter what,” Barkov said. “We played a good game even when we were down. … Nobody had one thought that we weren’t going to win this game.”
Alex Formenton, Artem Zub and Dylan Gambrell scored in regulation for the Senators. Drake Batherson had an assist in his return after missing 28 games with an ankle injury. Anton Forsberg stopped 46 shots in the loss.
“That’s a really, really good hockey team,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “But you know, we stayed with it long enough, we checked enough and Forsberg … let’s make no mistake (about) how good he was.”
Forsberg made a couple of big saves in the third to hold off the Panthers, but Barkov tied it 3 with 2:16 to play on a slap shot from just inside the blue line that made its way through traffic.
“This is probably the best lineup in the league,” Forsberg said. “Obviously, that’s the teams you want to compete with and that’s the fun games to play so it was fun to be out there.”
Gambrell made it 3-0 early in the second scoring off a turnover, but the Panthers managed to cut the lead to one by the end of the period.
Giroux found Duclair on the power play, and Duclair one-timed it for his 26th of the season at 8:55. Just over a minute later, Hornqvist carried the puck down low and backhanded it toward the net. Forsberg made the initial save, but Hornqvist was able to grab the rebound and pop it in at a very sharp angle.
Forsberg appeared to make an impressive behind-the-back save along the post, but after a lengthy review it was ruled the puck was in his glove behind the goal line to make it 3-2.
Despite being outplayed and outshot 19-8 the Senators held a 2-0 lead after the first period on goals by Formenton and Zub.
NOTES: Adam Gaudette was a healthy scratch for the Senators. … Jonathan Huberdeau played his 655th game with the Panthers.
UP NEXT
Panthers: At Toronto to face the Maple Leafs on Sunday night.
Senators: At Nashville to take on the Predators on Tuesday night.
