Keith Yandle and Evgenii Dadonov each had a goal and an assist for Florida (3-5-3), which won in regulation for the first time this season and went 3-for-5 on the power play.
Luongo, who made 17 saves in the third period, hadn't played since injuring his knee midway through the Panthers season opener, a 2-1 shootout loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning. He began fully practicing in Finland on Tuesday and was activated off injured reserve Thursday.
"I was eager to get back in the lineup," Luongo said. "I was aiming more towards next week, but I felt really good in practice the last few days. I had a good morning skate yesterday and I felt I was where I needed to be and I was excited to get back in the lineup.
"[The coaches] left it up to me. It was my call whether I wanted to start today and wait until next week. I wasn't quite sure early in the week, but the closer we got to today, the better I felt."
Nikolaj Ehlers and Patrik Laine scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 22 saves for Winnipeg (8-5-1), which defeated Florida 4-2 here on Thursday.
"You give up three on the P.K., you're not winning," Jets coach Paul Maurice said.
Ehlers gave the Jets a 1-0 lead at 8:53 of the first period when he put his own rebound past Luongo after Blake Wheeler sent him in alone on a pass from the neutral zone. The assist extended Wheeler's point streak to eight games (one goal, 11 assists).
Dadonov extended his point streak to eight (five goals, five assists) with a power-play goal at 14:29 of the first period to make it 1-1. After Jets center Mark Schiefele took a slashing penalty, Dadonov redirected Yandle's shot from the right point for his third goal in the past four games.
The assist extended Yandle's point streak to four games (two goals, three assists).
"We're doing a ton of good things," Yandle said. "We're playing hard every night. We've just got to go out there and earn our two points."
Laine, a Finland native who had a hat trick Thursday, scored to make it 2-1 at 17:16 of the first period when he skated in from the blue line to the right face-off circle and beat Luongo with a wrist shot for a power-play goal.
"Obviously, we would have a lot more confidence if we would have won this game," Laine said. "But I think for me, I think I had a pretty good two games, especially this one. I think I created a lot of positive things in their end and got the power-play goal. That was huge for us, but it wasn't enough tonight."
