It was the third straight loss in which the Sabres allowed six-plus goals. Goaltender Malcolm Subban - making his team debut after being acquired from the Blackhawks on Wednesday - allowed six goals on 25 shots before leaving with an injury with 10:03 remaining in the third period.
Granato felt the Sabres allowed too many grade-A chances, beginning when Sebastian Aho carried the puck beneath the goal line and found Teravainen alone in the slot during the game's early minutes.
"I thought we gave up too many good chances," he said. "We talk a lot about contested chances. Tonight, we gave up more uncontested chances than normal for us even though the shot volume was much lower. I thought we gave up more uncontested opportunities for them."
The Hurricanes scored three straight goals during the second period, the first two of which occurred just 24 seconds apart. Vincent Trocheck and Nino Niederreiter both beat Subban in 1-on-1 situations in the slot.
Carolina's final goal was reminiscent of its first. This time with Buffalo on the power play, Aho corralled his own rebound after Subban stopped him on a breakaway and once again found Teravainen alone for a one-time chance in front of the net.
"Good hockey teams don't need much," Granato said. "They took advantage of just about every little mistake]."
Henri Jokiharju and Zemgus Girgensons scored goals for the Sabres, who managed 11 high-danger chances to the Hurricanes' 12, according to [Natural Stat Trick.
The game concludes a road trip that pitted the Sabres against two of the Eastern Conference's top teams. The Panthers - whom they led 4-1 before falling 7-4 on Thursday - ranked second in the NHL in goals scored per game. The Hurricanes ranked third in goal allowed.
The results spoke for themselves, but Granato continued to strike an optimistic tone in terms of how his young team is handling adversity.
"I believe our guys have more confidence than they actually have had the results," he said. "That's a good thing. That means I can drive them harder. They feel an identity, they see ways that they can be successful, they immediately identify with the mistake they made. So, I think over the next little bit here is a big growing period for us and I think we'll see us become better and better quicker here."