The Oilers drew first blood only 64 seconds into the contest, on a goal eerily similar to the opener of the last meeting between these two teams.
Oscar Klefbom carried the puck down the far side, buried his head and leaned into a slapshot that was kicked out by Talbot, who came well out of his crease to cut down the angle. But,as he scrambled back into the paint, and a pair of Flames - including a diving Erik Gustafsson - hustled back in defence, Kailer Yamamoto eyed up the loose puck and had a free shot into the yawning cage.
He made no mistake.
The Oilers opened up a two-goal lead with a powerplay tally at 7:44, as Connor McDavid took a backdoor feed from Leon Draisaitl, before quickly pivoting his body, moving the puck to his forehand and tucking a quick shot up under the bar to beat his former teammate.
An Ethan Bear penalty late in the opening 20 gave the Flames their first look on the powerplay, but despite holding a significant territorial advantage for the entire two minutes, they were unable to get much on the net.
As the powerplay expired, the Darnell Nurse and the Oilers raced back on a dangerous-looking odd-man rush, but Talbot was up to the task, smothering the D man's blast from just outside the hash marks.
Tempers flared in the final few minutes of the period as former Flame James Neal took a healthy whack at Matthew Tkachuk, prompting a response from No. 19 himself, as well as the always-willing Rasmus Andersson.
Neal was issued a minor for his efforts, but the Flames were unable to cash on the advantage.
Shots on goal favoured the Oilers 17-9 after one.
"I thought the energy was good in this game," said Milan Lucic. "There was physicality, scrums. To be honest, it felt, for me - personally, and in talking to some teammates after the game - it felt like a regular-season game already, and that was the first time we'd played in about five months.
"Once you're in the play and you're in the flow of the game and the blood's flowing... Don't get me wrong. You love the energy and the momentum that the fans bring to the game, and you miss them. But when you're trying to make plays and you're getting in on the forecheck, you kind of get into your own zone and you're not focused on the outside type of stuff."
The Flames had a great chance to get on the board early in the second period when Sam Bennett one-timed a pass from Andrew Mangiapane off the rush, but Mikko Koskinen shuffled across to his left post, made the initial two stops off Bennett, then scrambled back to the opposite side and put the brakes on a Rasmus Andersson try from the top of the circles.
Both teams made a change in goal near the 10-minute mark of the period, with Rittich coming on for the 'home' team, and former Flame Mike Smith entering for the Oil.
The Flames looked better in the back half of the middle frame, and even out-shot the Oilers 16-7 in the stanza, but they were still having some trouble generating many quality chances. But, they certainly went to work and began punishing the Oilers with a committed effort in the corners and below the goal line, and that's where much of their offence began.
As a result, the Flames were rewarded with a late powerplay and made the most of it with a score-halving strike with only 3.6 seconds left on the clock.
With Tkachuk crashing the net and bumping over Smith in the process, Lindholm picked up the loose puck at the side of the net and promptly shelved it.
