SUNRISE, Fla. — David Booth scored his second goal of the game with 1:06 left in overtime to give the Florida Panthers a 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers on Saturday night.
Stephen Weiss also scored for the Panthers, and Richard Zednik — playing in his first regular season game at BankAtlantic Center since his neck was slashed last February — had two assists.
Slava Kozlov and Jason Williams scored for Atlanta (1-0-1), which beat Washington 7-4 at home on Friday. The Thrashers opened last season with six losses.
Tomas Vokoun, who had a shaky outing in Florida’s 6-4 loss at Carolina the previous night, made 31 saves.
Kari Lehtonen made 35 saves for Atlanta. He left the game for 3:37 in the first period because of an equipment malfunction. Backup Johan Hedberg stopped one shot during Lehtonen’s absence.
Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk hit the post with a wrist shot midway through the third period.
Booth scored after Nathan Horton’s centering pass bounced off the stick of Lehtonen and center Eric Perrin. Booth grab the puck in front of the net and put it past Lehtonen, who was out of position.
Atlanta trailed 2-1 before Williams tied it at 16:57 of the second period. He tipped in Ron Hainsey’s long pass from the point after Jim Slater won the faceoff.
The Thrashers took a 1-0 lead at 9:12 of the first when Kozlov tipped Ilya Kovalchuk’s pass across the goal mouth on a delayed penalty.
Booth tied at 11:14 with his second goal in two games. He beat Lehtonen with a wrist shot from the slot after taking a centering pass from Weiss.
Weiss gave Florida the lead 19 seconds into the second period on a pretty give-and-go play with Zednik. Weiss tipped in Zednik’s pass with a backhand.
Notes: Florida D Keith Ballard took a penalty for tripping only 10 seconds into the game. ... Florida RW Anthony Stewart, who was a healthy scratch Friday night, switched his jersey number from 57 to 13. ... D Niclas Havelid assisted on Atlanta’s first goal, giving him four assists in two games. ... Atlanta D Garnet Exelby played in his 300th NHL game.