Kyle Calder, left, scuffles with Keith Ballard in a 3-2 Kings win. (Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)

Tom Preissing scored on a power play, Brian Boyle also had a goal and the Los Angeles Kings ended a five-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.

Dustin Brown also scored for the Kings and rookie defenceman Drew Doughty, the No. 2 overall pick in the June 26 draft, earned his first two NHL assists.

Anthony Stewart had a goal and Nathan Horton added a short-handed tally for the Panthers in their fifth straight loss.

It was their first meeting with the Kings since Feb. 3, 2007, when they put 40 shots on Sean Burke and lost 7-0.

Boyle opened the scoring at 16:27 of the first period.

Teammate Patrick O'Sullivan tried to carry the puck out from behind the net and was tripped by Gregory Campbell, but Boyle beat defenceman Jay Bouwmeester to the loose puck and whipped his first goal of the season past Tomas Vokoun.

The Kings, 4-for-41 on the power play over their previous eight games and coming off their third shutout loss at home, made it 2-0 at 18:38 of the period while Bryan McCabe was off for tripping O'Sullivan.

Anze Kopitar faked a wrist shot at the top of the right circle to get Vokoun's attention, then made a cross-ice pass to Preissing, whose one-timer beat the goalie to the glove side.

Erik Ersberg made his second straight start in goal for the Kings after sitting behind Jason LaBarbera for the first 10 contests.

The 26-year-old Swede, who stopped 26 shots in a 1-0 overtime loss to Anaheim on Wednesday, had a relatively easy time of it as his teammates outshot the NHL's lowest-scoring team 12-3 in each of the first two periods.

The Panthers got on the board with their first shot of the third period.

They were able to keep the puck in the zone with some aggressive forechecking near the left boards and the puck bounced to Stewart, who took a quick 50-foot wrist shot that surprised Ersberg and beat him to the stick side.

Brown restored the Kings' two-goal margin with 8:37 to play, beating Vokoun to the glove side with a 35-foot wrist shot as McCabe stuck his stick out to try to block it.

Florida got its second goal with late in the third period as Horton scored from the top of the right circle, while Bouwmeester was serving a hooking penalty.