Atlanta Thrashers 4, Florida Panthers 3 FINAL OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) -- The Atlanta Thrashers reacquired Ben Simon this week to add some toughness. A rare showing of offense rallied his new team to a win.

Simon's first NHL goal tied it in the third period and Vyacheslav Kozlov then scored 2:57 into overtime to give the Thrashers a 4-3 victory Saturday night over the Florida Panthers.

Simon, a second-year player, played nine games for Atlanta last season before signing with Nashville in the offseason. Now he's back.

"I'm pretty happy," he said. "I'm not really a goal scorer. But I'll take what I can get. It's pretty neat to be able to say you scored in the NHL."

Kozlov scored the game-winner by ripping in a hard slap shot from just inside the blue line.

The Southeast Division-leading Thrashers, who beat Anaheim on Friday, also got goals from Jeff Cowan and Shawn McEachern. Atlanta improved to 3-1 against Florida this season.

Matt Cullen, Byron Ritchie and rookie Nathan Horton scored for the Panthers, winless in five (0-3-2).

"If we keep playing like this, we'll get some points on the board, so we can't keep our heads down," Florida goalie Roberto Luongo said. "We've got to win some games if we want to make the playoffs."

Atlanta's Pasi Nurminen finished with 31 saves. Luongo stopped 38 shots.

The Thrashers were 1-for-7 on the power play, and 18 of their 42 shots came with the man advantage. Florida was 1-for-2 on the power play.

"We had a lot of power plays against us and we can't afford to do that," Panthers coach Rick Dudley said. "Whether it's warranted or not, we can't have penalties like that."

The Thrashers trailed 3-1 in the second period when McEachern began Atlanta's comeback with his fifth goal of the season, fourth against the Panthers.

"It's strange," McEachern said of his success against Florida. "I've never had that happen, really."

McEachern batted a puck out of the air in front of the net and put his own rebound past Luongo.

"McEachern plays extremely well against us and we have to figure that out," Dudley said.

Simon tied it with his first NHL goal at 9:49 of the third. Simon put a rebound past Luongo after Ilya Kovalchuk's shot went wide and bounced back on the other side of the net.

"When you're playing with Kolvy, you're going to get some chances," Thrashers coach Bob Hartley said. "I like him. He brings grit to our lineup. We knew exactly what we were doing when we made the trade."

Luongo kept it tied 1-1 early in the second with several nice saves as Atlanta outshot the Panthers 10-0 to start the period.

"He played great, especially on that one power play in the second period when it seemed like we had 10 shots," McEachern said. "He just kept kicking his pads out."

Florida's first shot in the period was a wrister from the point by defenseman Mathieu Biron. After Nurminen's blocker save, Ritchie backhanded the rebound between Nurminen's pads.

Horton extended the lead when he tipped Valeri Bure's wrist shot from the point on a power play.

Cowan gave Atlanta a 1-0 lead at 8:31 of the first with the Thrashers on a four-minute power play.

After Kovalchuk's one-timed slap shot from the point hit the post, the puck sat in the crease with Luongo out of position until Cowan skated in from the side.

Cullen tied it 1-1 at 18:11 of the first with his first goal. Cullen, who returned Wednesday after missing 23 games because of a sports hernia, beat Nurminen over the shoulder with a backhand from close range.

"We were working hard," Simon said. "The power play was doing everything but scoring. We knew if we kept battling, things would go our way."