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SUNRISE, Fla. -- Rising to the challenge of facing the defending Stanley Cup champions to kick off their four-game road trip, the Detroit Red Wings scored three power-play goals en route to a 5-2 victory over the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday night.

“We found a way to scrap our way to a win,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “It wasn’t pretty. We needed some board work, blocked shots and whistles, but it’s a good learning experience for our group. Sometimes, it’s easier to learn when you win than when you lose.”

Goalie Cam Talbot made 41 saves against Florida (26-17-3; 55 points) to earn his 11th win of the season for Detroit (21-19-4; 46 points).

“That’s a veteran group coming off a win,” Talbot said. “They know how to win, especially in this building. I give our guys a ton of credit. We came out and played a heck of a hockey game tonight.”

Jonatan Berggren’s seventh goal of the season, and second on the power play, gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead 8:48 into Thursday’s Atlantic Division matchup. An along-the-wall pass from Vladimir Tarasenko went to Erik Gustafsson, and his feed from just below the blue line found Berggren alone at the top of the left face-off circle for the game-opening tally.

Making the most of some extended offensive zone time, the Panthers evened the score just 2:13 later when Anton Lundell jabbed in Carter Verhaeghe’s rebound to make it 1-1.

Florida survived a penalty at the start of the second period but couldn’t prevent Detroit from tacking on another power-play goal at 7:52. After making a nice move off the boards to give himself a little bit of space, Alex DeBrincat passed to Patrick Kane in the right face-off circle. Kane then one-timed it to Larkin, who tapped the feed home on the doorstep for his first goal of the night that also gave the visitors their second lead of the night, 2-1.

Evan Rodrigues tied it 5:23 after Larkin scored, finishing Mackie Samoskevich’s feed on the rush to make it 2-2.

But Detroit cashed in on a man-advantage opportunity later in the second period to jump back on top, as Patrick Kane buried a quick shot from the middle of the right face-off circle to make it 3-2 at 13:44. Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider had the assists on Kane’s 11th goal of the campaign.

“It is very well connected,” McLellan said about Detroit’s power play, which is currently ranked second in the NHL (29.5-percent success rate). “We use that word in the coaching world. It’s confident and has a real sense of attack points. When it’s not going well, one of the most impressive things is how they go get pucks back.”

Doubling the lead for the Red Wings and chasing Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky from the game, Marco Kasper raced into the offensive zone then scored a far-side goal to push it to 4-2 at 15:41 of the second period. The lone assist on Kasper’s fifth tally of the season went to Larkin.

“I saw him along the wood a lot tonight,” McLellan said about Kasper, who has three multi-point games in his last four appearances. “Making really good heavy, hard plays. That’s a tough team to play against. They’re always pinching. Then the offense is showing up when we need it, so he’s doing a real good job.”

Detroit defended its two-goal lead throughout the third period, then Larkin sealed the victory with an empty-netter at 18:38 for his second goal of the game to finish the scoring at 5-2.

This season, Larkin leads his hometown NHL club in goals (20) and power-play goals (11). He reached the 20-goal mark for the fourth straight campaign and sixth time in his career, becoming the first Red Wings skater to record four consecutive 20-goal seasons since Henrik Zetterberg hit the mark seven years in a row (2005-2012).

“It’s three [games] in four [days], with tough travel on the back-to-back,” Larkin said when asked how Detroit can carry over Thursday’s effort into its next game. “But we’ve set a standard for how we need to play. It’s just doing that night after night. Talbs was great tonight, so we’re going to have to find different ways to win on this trip. Tampa is always a good challenge, and a great atmosphere to play in. I hope we’re ready to go.”

NEXT UP: The Red Wings will battle the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Saturday night.

Talbot, Larkin and McLellan speak with the media following the Red Wings 5-2 win over Florida

POSTGAME QUOTES

McLellan on his players approached Thursday’s game

“We had a good, firm practice [on Wednesday] and we came here. This may sound strange, but this was a perfect opponent for us. They had our attention, and we found a way to win.”

Talbot on getting the road trip started with a win

“Obviously, a tough building to play in and a veteran team over there. We needed a response after our last game. We knew that we didn’t play to our standard that we’ve been setting, so I thought we came out tonight and established our game.”

Talbot on how a hot power play makes it easier on him as a goalie

“That definitely helps when they bury three before the midway point of the game. That’s pretty unheard of. You have to give them a ton of credit. So hot lately, and they’ve been carrying our team. I thought the PK also stepped up really big tonight, so special teams was huge.”

Larkin if they dwelled on Tuesday’s loss

“We talked about it. I don’t think we dwelled on it. The Toronto game was the first time with Todd when things didn’t go well, when we didn’t win and play to our standard. He let us know that, and that was really important and very productive. But we didn’t dwell on [Tuesday’s game] and it was business as usual. Kind moved our focus to Florida and this trip, and we had a great start to this trip.”

Larkin on Detroit’s power play

“It’s been different things. Tonight, we just outworked the penalty killers. They like to pressure and win battles on the boards. We won pucks and got it back, and it was nice to see that things were going well on the first one for us. The next unit came out and did their job, and Bergy scored a beauty.”