BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Mike Vellucci didn't need much time to consider the question, to reflect on how he'd have preferred to see the game play out after watching his team of Penguins prospects score the first four goals against the Sabres' entry during a tournament at Harborcenter today.
And it wouldn't have been to have that lead melt away as it did, before the Penguins pulled out a 6-4 victory.
"We'd all rather win, 10-0," Vellucci said. "But from a learning (standpoint), it's a good lesson."
He got to see that his players, many of whom he will coach in Wilkes-Barre this winter, can overcome adversity, at least some of which was self-inflicted against the Sabres.
For when they seemed to have the game under control late in the second period, the Penguins took two penalties in less than two minutes, leading to a sequence that saw the Sabres generate four goals in just over 5 1/2 minutes.
"We need more discipline," Penguins winger Nathan Legare said. "We got some penalties, and that cost our team a lot."
Buffalo finished with one goal on six power plays, while the Penguins were 1 for 4 with the extra man. Both teams got a shorthanded goal.
"It was a specialty-team afternoon," Vellucci said.
And even though the Penguins appeared to be in danger of unraveling early in the third period, they regained their equilibrium and were able to fend off a late surge by the Sabres.
"They got their bounces, we got ours," Penguins defenseman John Marino said. "It went back-and-forth. Both teams were competing pretty hard out there ... At the end of the day, we were able to keep it together and come out with a win."
The Penguins finished the tournament 2-1, the same record as Buffalo. Although no champion was announced, the title presumably went to the Penguins, based on the head-to-head result against the Sabres.
The other two teams, Boston and New Jersey, finished 1-2.
"It was a good tournament, overall," Vellucci said. "A lot of good things."
Here are some more thoughts from Buffalo:
• Legare, the Penguins' third-round draft choice in June, capped a strong showing in the tournament by scoring the game-winning goal at 3:57 of the third period, as he threw in the rebound of a Jordy Bellerive shot just 16 seconds after Buffalo had pulled even, 4-4, on a shorthanded goal. "Jordy Bellerive made a good shot and the rebound was there, so I got a little bit lucky," Legare said. Vellucci said Legare has "got to improve his footspeed, a little bit of his work ethic and his attention to detail ... but (he's) a very good player."
• Vellucci deployed one forward on the point of each power-play unit -- Samuel Poulin manned the left side with one group, Bellerive the right on the other -- and said that is standard procedure for him. "Always," he said. "I have four forwards and one (defenseman). That's what I've done with both units for a long time. I just think it gives you more options, especially when you play, like, a 1-3-1 (formation) on the power play." It's worth noting that Bellerive scored on the power play, beating Sabres goalie Matthew Welsh with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.
• Poulin secured the victory by scoring into an empty net with 33.5 seconds left in regulation, his second goal of the tournament, which he spent playing on the top line. "Poulin is a good player, obviously," Vellucci said. "I liked what he did. He did a lot of good things, defensively, and he held onto a lot of pucks, offensively."
• Marino, acquired from Edmonton for a sixth-round draft choice this summer, picked up an assist on Poulin's goal and was strong in his own zone throughout the game, as he had been in the previous two. "That's probably one of the strongest parts of my game, defensive play," he said.
• Right winger Anthony Angello scored the Penguins' second and third goals -- the latter on a deft deflection -- which meant that, dating to their 2-1 victory against New Jersey Saturday, he accounted for three of their goals during a four-goal stretch. He also had a vigorous exchange of punches with Sabres defenseman Casey Fitzgerald, son of former Penguins assistant GM Tom Fitzgerald, late in the second period.
• Center Billy Moskal, who participated in the tournament on an amateur tryout, had another strong performance and earned a very positive assessment from Vellucci. "He won a lot of key draws," Vellucci said. "You notice, I had him on the ice quite a bit at the end there. I thought he had a really good tournament."
• Vellucci praised the two-way play of defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph, acquired from Arizona in the Phil Kessel trade. "I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I like him a lot," he said. "I don't want to overstate how much, but I think there's so much potential there. He's doing things a 19- or 20-year-old don't normally do."
• Penguins goalie Emil Larmi finished the game with 32 saves on 36 shots.
• Right winger Jan Drozg, a fifth-round draft choice in 2017, showed good awareness with nine minutes left in the first period, when he picked off a pass in the Buffalo end and wound up with one of the better scoring chances to that point of the game.
• Of the 24 players on the roster, defenseman Zach Lauzon was the only one who didn't dress for at least one game. Tryout candidates Josh Williams, a left winger, and Liam Ross, a defenseman, made their tournament debuts against the Sabres.
• Matt Cullen, who joined the Penguins' player-development staff this summer, attended the game today. He will be on hand in Cranberry when training camp begins later this week.
