North Queensland have launched a bold rescue mission to overrun Penrith 28-20 in their round two win at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Saturday night.

After coming short of gunning down a 24-0 deficit against the Broncos last weekend, the Cowboys were again staring down the barrel at 14-0 down in greasy conditions as Cyclone Ului edged closer to the coast.

But a second-half blitz saw them run away with their first win of the season, a Michael Bani special sealing the result in the 70th minute.

With the scores locked at 20-20, the Thursday Island speedster showed a clean pair of heels to turn Lachlan Coote, Michael Gordon and Luke Lewis inside out to score a sensational try.

A 76th minute penalty goal from Cowboys skipper Johnathan Thurston then put the game out of reach for the Panthers, who had won their last three games in North Queensland.

Penrith entered the game without Trent Waterhouse (quad) and Nathan Smith (groin) and may face further problems with representative lock Lewis limping from the field with a leg injury following the Bani try.

In the wet conditions, the Panthers welcomed two back-to-back penalties in the opening minutes and slotted home a penalty goal when Willie Tonga was pinged for working Nigel Plum in a tackle.

Former Cowboy Travis Burns was given a North Queensland welcome by Grant Rovelli and Ashley Graham but their crunching tackle earned the Panthers a penalty when Rovelli tried to work him onto his back.

Lewis then found a gaping hole in the defensive line to score the opening try, Gordon's conversion extending their lead to 8-0.

Thurston answered with a penalty before the Panthers extended their lead 12 minutes from the break when Luke Walsh crossed the line.

The home side struck back eight minutes after the break when Scott Bolton sold a perfect dummy to Gordon to score the easiest of tries, Thurston nailing the extras to put North Queensland back within six.

But a howler from Ty Williams saw the fullback knock-on a Walsh kick on his own line allowing Lewis to clean up the crumbs for his second try.

A clever pass from Grant Rovelli to Thurston kept the home side in the hunt with the skipper finding space before finding Willie Tonga who dashed 40 metres to beat Coote and score.

The Cowboys levelled the scores in the 66th minute before Bani's late brilliance stole the points.

Cowboys coach Neil Henry said his players were always confident they could find a way back from the sizeable deficit.

"We said at halftime we were in striking distance," he said.

"We just needed a bit of field position and we got that.

"That's two weeks in a row now we've been down by a lot of points ... to come back and hold them out late in the game with a couple of repeat sets, I'm very happy with that."

Penrith counterpart Matthew Elliott was critical of his team's second-half defensive effort.

"We basically sent a welcoming party into our tryline (in the second half) and you can't do that in this competition," he said.

"It was a huge momentum swing and the opposition have got some handy players and they took advantage of that."

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