DETROIT — Dylan Larkin knew what he was in for Sunday.

He and Connor McDavid came into the NHL at the same time, in 2015, and over the years, Larkin has been asked time and again go to head-to-head with the world’s best player. Through it, he’s developed a certain mindset when it comes to that matchup — one that demands realism more than anything else.

“If it’s 0-0 while we’re out on the ice together,” Larkin said, “I think it gives our team a good chance.”

Sunday, he did a bit better than that.

Larkin scored two goals and added two assists, tying a career high four points in the Red Wings’ 4-2 win over the Oilers on Sunday. He held McDavid to just two shots on goal, in nearly 17 minutes matched head-to-head with the three-time MVP. And in the process, he helped power the Red Wings’ fifth straight victory, which has Detroit in first place in the Atlantic Division to begin the year.

As good as Larkin has been through his 11 seasons with the Red Wings, you can make a real case that Sunday was one of the best games of his career.

That’s not solely because of the matchup, but it certainly helps. There’s no player in the league quite like McDavid, whose speed, skill and processing ability give him singular game-breaking ability when he’s on the ice.

“You almost don’t think about offense when you play against him,” Larkin said. “And it doesn’t help when (Leon) Draisaitl’s playing with him all night. His speed — you’re a step behind, you’re a half step behind, you’re even with him, you’re screwed.”

Larkin, though, is one of the few players in the NHL whose skating can approach that level. He also has the precise kind of competitive attitude to embrace a matchup like that — even when it’s complicated by the addition of Draisaitl, himself an MVP winner whose hockey sense and playmaking throw in a whole new wrinkle.

Playing alongside Larkin for that matchup were Lucas Raymond — the Red Wings’ star winger, returning from a multi-game absence due to an upper-body injury — and Emmitt Finnie, the 20-year-old rookie who has tuned heads in Detroit all fall. And on most nights, that’s the line the Red Wings will be looking to for offense.

But from early in the game Sunday, their approach was clear. It was 0-0 after the first period, with shots just 7-3 in Detroit’s favor. None of those belonged to the McDavid line.

Hockey has a way of rewarding those who buy into its hardest demands, and Sunday was a case in point for that top Red Wings line.

Early in the second period, Larkin won an offensive zone face-off and then got to the slot, where he opened the scoring by blasting home a one-timer from Ben Chiarot. Then, after killing off an Oilers power play, it was Finnie coming through, getting to the net and banging home a rebound for his first NHL goal.

Finnie has been a fairy tale story for the Red Wings since the start of training camp, where he burst onto the scene thanks to his speed and fearlessness. A seventh-round pick just two years ago, the 20-year-old had impressed at virtually all of Detroit’s prospect events since he was drafted, but he was still expected to need some time in Grand Rapids before competing for a bottom-six role in the NHL.

Instead? The jump he brought to the ice in training camp earned him some preseason looks on Detroit’s top line, which was in desperate need of a running mate next to Larkin and Raymond. With his motor, courage and poise, Finnie looked just the part, and continued to, throughout the preseason. Detroit’s management group couldn’t ignore it, and he made the opening night roster.

Now, six games in, here he was, matched up against two of the best players on the planet — and scoring.

As great as Larkin’s effort was on Sunday, it doesn’t work without Raymond gutting it out despite clearly not being 100 percent, or a staggeringly mature effort from the rookie Finnie, who finished with three points to go with four hits.

“There’s a reason why he was a captain in juniors,” Larkin said of Finnie. “He does the little things that win hockey games, and to see him score his first tonight was awesome, and sure enough, right around the net. He goes to the net hard, he plays without fear, and just a great teammate — great linemate.”

Finnie was even at the net front screening, and looking for a tip, when Larkin scored his second of the night — a seemingly innocuous puck fired from the wall that may have surprised Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner, and appeared to deflect off Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm on the way in.

It would be one thing if Sunday’s win had been a one-off. Edmonton was in tough, coming in on the second leg of a back-to-back, and that circumstance obviously matters.

But the moment was even more impressive considering the 4-2 victory was Detroit’s fifth straight since losing its season opener, and Larkin has been a crucial factor in nearly all of them.

After Montreal walked out of Little Caesars Arena with a 5-1 win, Larkin has points in all five Red Wings games since, including some monster ones. He opened the scoring in a crucial road win in Toronto. He had two assists in a 4-1 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers on National TV Wednesday. And then he buried an overtime winner Friday to take down the Tampa Bay Lightning.

That’s before mentioning the injuries to Detroit’s other top forwards, Raymond and Patrick Kane (who missed Sunday’s game with an upper-body injury), or the fact Larkin himself missed Saturday’s practice for a maintenance day of his own.

It all just adds to just how good Larkin has been, at a time the Red Wings have desperately needed him to be.

“Everything a captain should be,” coach Todd McLellan said. “Leadership — and leadership isn’t just ‘rah’rah,’ a lot of times it’s leading by example. He’s done a tremendous job. We’re early in the season, and he’s playing banged up a little bit. But everything that we should see from Dylan, we’re seeing from him right now.”

Larkin, too, was quick on Sunday to highlight all the players besides himself who have played key roles in this early hot streak. He shouted out Albert Johansson, who was indeed quite good defensively Sunday at disrupting the Oilers attack. He pointed to Mason Appleton’s contributions when Raymond was out, and the plays veteran James van Riemsdyk has made in Detroit’s bottom six.

“We have guys contributing in ways that aren’t on the scoresheet,” Larkin said.

The calendar still says October, of course, and the Red Wings have learned over the last several years how fast a season can turn. They don’t have the luxury to celebrate what they’re doing right now.

But on a day like Sunday, with Larkin matching his career high in points while playing perhaps the toughest defensive matchup he’ll take all season, a bit of recognition was more than warranted. Especially for the way it happened.

“It’s funny, when you don’t think about offense, how offense comes,” Larkin said.

That’s how the Red Wings ran their win streak to five games — and perhaps a blueprint for what it will take to keep the good vibes rolling.