PITTSBURGH — On the positive side, the Sabres played an aggressive got to the net style that they haven't shown enough of in the past and were rewarded with four goals against the Penguins.
On the downside, they struggled to get out of their own end and lost 5-4 in a shootout in their fifth of six preseason games.
Buffalo got first period goals from Brett Murray and Vinnie Hinostroza, a second period power play goal from Victor Olofsson to take a 3-1 lead, and a third period tally from Anders Bjork to give the Sabres a 4-3 lead before the Pens tied it up.
Jason Zucker scored the decisive goal in a shootout that wound up going nine rounds.
Buffalo head coach Don Granato said the biggest problem was defensive zone exits.
"You know there's situations where you saw an awareness and they just didn't execute. They knew where they should go with it, but there are things we can tweak and we can drill in at practice that can help us in that area but by what you saw tonight... looks like we've got a long way to go."
The Sabres (1-3-1) face Detroit in their final preseason game before opening the regular season on the 14th at home against Montreal.
