It was another late night with the Panthers on Saturday as they continue to struggle when holding a late lead.

The Panthers led Atlanta into the final minutes at BankAtlantic Center, but once more gave it up and ended up losing to the Thrashers 2-1 in a shootout.

Since Nov. 16, the Panthers have held a third period lead in seven games. Saturday's loss was their fourth during that period. The Panthers have lost seven of their past eight and have won once in their past six at home.

``We played a pretty damn good hockey game, again,'' captain Bryan McCabe said. ``But we found a way to lose it. We have to find a way to end up on the other way of things.''

The game was scoreless going into the third, and given what happened in the second, that was fine with the Panthers.

Florida was charged with a litany of penalties in that period, and ended up losing winger Michael Frolik when he was ejected and charged five minutes for boarding Tobias Enstrom.

Florida had a number of penalties that were washed out by concurring Atlanta infractions, but moments after Florida killed off Frolik's penalty, Mike Duco was called for kneeing. Then Bryan McCabe was called for elbowing.

All told, the Panthers had to kill off almost nine consecutive minutes of penalties in the second period -- and didn't fold. The high-flying Thrashers failed to get a single goal.

``I thought we did a pretty good job,'' said goalie Tomas Vokoun, who made 36 saves in his return. ``We knew [Ilya] Kovalchuk was the most dangerous guy there so we played off him. It worked.''

DISASTER AHEAD

The Panthers took a lead early in the third when Stephen Weiss deflected a long shot from Dmitry Kulikov past Johan Hedberg on one of Florida's rare power play chances, but the Panthers couldn't put the Thrashers away despite repeated chances -- and that usually means disaster isn't too far away.

The struggling Kamil Kreps, who was lambasted by coach Pete DeBoer on the bench during Thursday's loss in Washington, was called for hooking with 3:14 left.

The Panthers technically killed that penalty off, but as Kreps was racing back into position deep in the Florida zone, Kovalchuk ripped off a shot that beat the sliding Vokoun with 1:04 left.

Overtime, again.

``We can't take that penalty,'' DeBoer said. ``Any mistake we make is magnified.''

The Panthers were very active in overtime, but couldn't get the game-winner, and were unable to draw a penalty with 58.6 seconds left when Steven Reinprecht was dragged down on a breakaway by Ron Hainsey. Hainsey wasn't charged.

``It was a cluster of a game with about 100 penalties for each team,'' said McCabe when asked about the non-call. ``Who knows what a penalty was [Saturday night]?''

DeBoer laughed while refusing to comment about the officiating to avoid a league fine: ``I have to buy Christmas gifts for my kids,'' he said.

Florida has been good in the shootout this season and was again on Saturday. The Panthers scored only once as Nathan Horton and Rostislav Olesz each hit the post.

`WE'RE NOT OUT OF IT'

Reinprecht kept the shootout going with his goal in the third round to match Kovalchuk's opener, but Rich Peverley froze Vokoun in the fourth round to give Atlanta its fourth point over the Panthers in less than a week.

``They scored with five seconds left in Atlanta and then with a minute left here,'' Vokoun said. ``It is tough. That's what it is. We have a lot of games left in the season and we're not out of it. We played better overall [Saturday].''