*Booth carries Panthers to first win of season*
SUNRISE, Florida (Ticker) -- David Booth scored a pair of goals, including the game-winner with 65 seconds left in overtime, to lift the Florida Panthers to a 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers on Saturday.
Stephen Weiss also tallied and Tomas Vokoun stopped 31 shots for Florida, which gave first-year coach Peter DeBoer his first career win.
Richard Zednik and defenseman Keith Ballard each had a pair of assists for the Panthers, who outshot the Thrashers, 18-5, in the third period.
"It was nice to see that level raised," said DeBoer, who expressed relief that his first win is behind him. "The will to win really came out in that third period and overtime. It kind of gets that monkey off your back.
"The guys worked really hard to get it done tonight. I thought the effort has been there both tonight and last night."
Booth's first-career multi-goal game came at the perfect time for the Panthers.
"It feels good when you can come through like that, especially against a divisional rival in your first game at home," Booth said. "The fans have been behind me from the start, and that makes it even more satisfying."
The third-year left wing knocked home a rebound from the top of the crease after Nathan Horton fired a shot from the left faceoff circle that caromed off the glove of goaltender Kari Lehtonen.
"My only thought was to get off a good shot and hopefully bury it," Booth said. "We had been pressuring them in the zone pretty good."
"(The puck) was like a knuckleball coming at (Lehtonen), and it hit the heel of his glove and bounced right back out," Atlanta coach John Anderson said.
Lehtonen, who started the game but left for a brief period of time due to equipment issues, stopped 35 shots. Johan Hedberg turned aside the only shot he faced in Lehtonen's absence.
"You can play poorly one night and win, and the next night play well and lose," Lehtonen said. "That's the way this game goes sometimes."
Vyacheslav Kozlov and Jason Williams tallied for Atlanta, which was coming off a season-opening 7-4 win over Washington on Friday.
Early on, it seemed the Thrashers would pick up where they left off as Kozlov took a feed from Ilya Kovalchuk and beat Vokoun at 9:12 of the first for a 1-0 lead. However, Booth tied it just 2:02 later, when he beat Lehtonen to the glove side with a wrist shot from the high slot.
Weiss' tally 19 seconds into the second put the Panthers ahead, 2-1. Weiss took a cross-ice pass from Zednik and slipped the puck past Lehtonen from the right side of the crease.
"Everyone is stepping up," Weiss said. "You can see it in the practices and now in the first few games. If you work hard and put it all on the line out there, you are going to get (wins)."
Atlanta tied it on Williams' first goal of the season with 3:03 left in the second. The 28-year-old knocked in a deflection following a shot from the point by defenseman Ron Hainsey.
"I'm not satisfied. We should have won tonight," Williams said. "I think we had chances to win, but I'm not going to make excuses like that. We've got to learn to bury teams when we get the chance."
Neither team was able to capitalize with the man advantage, as both finished 0-for-5 on the power play.
"We didn't attack enough tonight," Anderson said. "I thought we could have played with more intensity."
