ATLANTA (AP) -- Playing for the first time in nearly seven weeks, Norm Maracle didn't look the least bit rusty.

The Atlanta goaltender came off the injured list to stop 25 shots and the Thrashers snapped a three-game losing, beating the Florida Panthers 2-1 on Friday night.

	Atlanta's Norm Maracle gives up his only goal -- to Florida's Radek Dvorak -- on his way to a 2-1 win Friday.

Yannick Tremblay scored the winning goal late in the second period and a slimmed-down Maracle withstood a Florida barrage in the final seconds.

"I felt really good," said Maracle, who picked up his first win with the Thrashers. "It's one thing if I didn't do anything while I was hurt, but I've been working hard."

Maracle had not been in the nets since an Oct. 17 loss to the New York Rangers. He sprained his left ankle in practice the day after Halloween and had been on the injured list until Friday.

Maracle, who wasn't in the best of shape when he reported to training camp, used the time to reduce his weight from 195 to 183 pounds.

"I have not played at this weight since juniors," he said. "My hat's off to the training staff. They've done a great job. Our defense played great, especially in the final minutes."

The expansion Thrashers won for just the third time in 12 games. Florida, leading the Southeast Division, suffered its third loss in 10 games.

"We didn't seem sharp at the start and never got it going," Ray Whitney said. "It wasn't there."

After falling behind 1-0 in the first period, Atlanta tied it up in the opening minute of the second. Andrew Brunette scored his team-high 11th goal, slipping a rebound between the pads of Florida goaltender Trevor Kidd at 59 seconds.

Brunette already has equaled his career high for goals, set originally for Washington two years ago and equaled last season with Nashville.

Late in the period, the Thrashers took advantage of an interference penalty against Peter Worrell. Patrik Stefan made a cross-ice pass from the left boards to Tremblay, camped out at the top of the right face-off circle. The defenseman one-timed a high shot past Kidd at 18:02.

Tremblay scored his third goal of the season on his first shift after slicing his nose on a drive to the net. He slipped down in front of Kidd, whose goal stick inadvertently clipped the Atlanta player and sent him to the locker room for stitches.

"I think that woke me up," Tremblay said. "Patrik gave me a great pass and I had it lined up right on goal."

The Panthers pulled Kidd in the final minute and gained another extra man when Atlanta's David Harlock was called for slashing with 37 seconds remaining. But Maracle made at least three saves, including a stop on Pavel Bure, and sprawled to the ice as the horn sounded.

"Norm has been working really hard in practices and in the gym," Tremblay said. "We knew that once he was back, he had to be really sharp."

The Panthers, who already had defeated Atlanta twice this season, jumped ahead at 12:12 of the opening period when Radek Dvorak showed off his dazzling speed.

After a seemingly harmless turnover in the offensive zone by the Thrashers, Viktor Kozlov fed a quick pass to Dvorak at the center line. He outraced Darryl Shannon for a breakaway and slid the puck under Maracle for the Florida player's sixth goal.

In a 3-0 loss to the Panthers six days earlier, Atlanta right wing Nelson Emerson received a concussion on a hit by Jaroslav Spacek, who was given a game misconduct. Emerson is now on the injured list.

Despite the incident, there didn't seem to be much lingering bad blood between the division rivals. Worrell and Atlanta's Denny Lambert traded punches less than three minutes into the game, but that was the only fight.