Atlanta jumped out to an early four-goal lead receiving a pair of goals from LW Ilya Kovalchuk, along with tallies by RW Marian Hossa and C Jason Krog. The Cats battled back cutting the lead to 4-2, on back-to-back goals by LW Ville Peltonen and LW Rostislav Olesz. Peltonen banged a rebound past Thrashers netminder Kari Lehtonen for his first goal as a Panther, while Olesz picked up his first of the preseason at 14:25. The Thrashers closed out the scoring for the period when LW Brett Sterling found the back of the net at 16:36.

Florida and Atlanta traded goals in the middle frame. RW Nathan Horton netted a power play tally off a perfect feed from C Olli Jokinen at 13:12 to make it 5-3. The Thrashers pulled ahead by three again late in the second period when RW Joseph Crabb fired a shot past Cats netminder Jean-Marc Pelletier with just under a minute to play in the second period. Pelletier replaced G Alex Auld who was in net for the first period of action.