SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) -- Roberto Luongo's long break from hockey

clearly didn't hurt his form.

Luongo made 34 saves for his 24th career shutout, and Nathan

Horton and Lucas Krajicek scored in the third period to lift the

Florida Panthers to a 2-0 season-opening victory over the Atlanta

Thrashers on Wednesday night.

Luongo, who had seven shutouts and a league-record 2,303 saves

during the NHL's pre-lockout season of 2003-04, made 10 stops

during a 5-minute shorthanded stretch during the third period,

holding up a 1-0 lead and ensuring coach Jacques Martin's debut on

the Panthers' bench was a winning one.

"He's the best goalie in the league right now," Panthers

captain Olli Jokinen said. "He's been top three in the past few

years and he showed everyone tonight that he's the top one. With a

goalie like him, we have a chance to win every night. And finally,

he's got a team in front of him that can win the games."

Martin became the seventh straight Panthers' coach to win his

debut; four of the last five new Florida coaches have been greeted

with a shutout.

"Goaltending is a key in this business," Martin said. "And a

lot of times you're going to win with goaltending and specialty

teams. If you win the specialty team part of a game, you really

give yourself a great chance."

The Thrashers -- who lost starting goaltender Kari Lehtonen after

one period with a groin injury, a different one than what bothered

him for much of training camp -- were without their best sniper.

Ilya Kovalchuk, who shared the NHL lead with 41 goals in 2003-04,

remains a holdout and is threatening to play in his native Russia.

"We have a lot of great players, but he's not here right now,"

Thrashers captain Scott Mellanby said. "We believe we have a good

team with what we have."

Horton intercepted Mike Dunham's clearing pass along the right

wing boards, then sent a quick shot deflecting off the Thrashers'

goalie and into the net to break a scoreless tie 1:08 into the

third.

"It hit the inside of my glove and squeaked through," Dunham

said. "That's a goal I have to have. No question about it."

But the Panthers gave Atlanta a great opportunity to tie the

game; defenseman Branislav Mezei drew a 5-minute major and a game

misconduct for boarding with 15:26 left, and Sean Hill was called

for hooking 15 seconds later to give the Thrashers a two-man

advantage.

Didn't matter. Luongo made six saves, stoning Marian Hossa and

Vyacheslav Kozlov during the 5-on-3, and stopped four more while

the Panthers killed off the rest of Mezei's penalty.

"It was huge. We had just taken the lead and we had to come up

with a big kill," Luongo said. "And the boys did a good job."

With 3:34 left, Krajicek took a cross-ice pass from Kristian

Huselius and sent a wrist shot past Dunham for a power-play goal.

Hockey's new scoring friendly rules -- including bigger offensive

zones and allowing two-line breakout passes over the center line --

were in effect. But teams were scoreless for the first 41 minutes,

combining for only 34 shots and few quality scoring chances through

the first two periods.

And when Atlanta tried to get rolling, Luongo was at his best.

"He was the dominant factor in this game, no doubt," Atlanta

coach Bob Hartley said. "The one thing we could have done was get

in front of him better. But we moved the puck well, made some great

decisions. But we couldn't finish."Game notes
Daniel Rodriguez, the former New York police officer who

gained widespread acclaim following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

for his singing of "God Bless America," performed the national

anthem. ... Florida won a season opener for the fifth time in 12

chances; Atlanta has lost four of six openers. ... Huselius' first

shot was stopped by Dunham with 8:36 left in the second; Huselius

had scored on the opening shot in his previous three seasons. ...

The Panthers traded D Filip Novak to Ottawa on Wednesday for a

conditional sixth-round draft pick in 2007.