Evan Rodrigues also scored for the Panthers (23-18-3) who had lost two straight games and four of their past five. Aaron Ekblad had two assists and Sergei Bobrovsky made 17 saves for his first win since beating the Washington Capitals 5-3 on Dec. 29.
Fabian Zetterlund and Drake Batherson scored for Ottawa (20-19-5), which has lost four straight. Leevi Merilainen made 18 saves for the Senators.
Ottawa got an early power play and opened the scoring a second after it ended at 4:03 of the first period. Zetterlund scored to make it 1-0 on a sharp-angled shot from near the goal line, the puck hitting the stick of Forsling and riding over the shoulder of Bobrovsky.
Rodrigues made it 1-1 at 11:34 of the first, getting a cross-ice pass from Ekblad and sending a wrist shot over the blocker from the slot on the power play.
The Panthers took their first lead on a power play at 13:13 of the second period when Forsling found Verhaeghe in the left circle and he went bar-down with a wrist shot.
Forsling scored his second goal of the season for a 3-1 lead at 3:48 of the third period, walking into the left circle off a pass from Ekblad and scoring off a slap shot.
With Merilainen on the bench for an extra attacker, Batherson pulled the Senators within a goal at 3-2 with 1:42 remaining by deflecting a shot from Claude Giroux at the left post.
Florida’s penalty kill held Ottawa scoreless on five attempts with the advantage, limiting the Senators to four shots on goal.
