Parise, Vanek score, Kuemper solid in Wild's exhibition overtime loss

Evening from the friendly sky following the Wild's 3-2 overtime exhibition loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pretty choppy game after some early flow in the first 10 minutes.

Brandon Sutter scored two goals, including the overtime winner after Ilya Bryzgalov couldn't handle Simon Despres' shot off a faceoff. The puck hopped up in the air and landed on the ice for the easy Sutter slam dunk.

"Maybe the brass will get confused which Sutter got two tonight," joked Wild center Brett Sutter, Brandon's cousin, as he stretched on the Wild's locker-room floor after the game.

Brett Sutter, the son of L.A. Kings coach Darryl Sutter, played a solid game and coach Mike Yeo was happy with the "momentum shifts" he got from the fourth line of roster hopefuls Sutter, Cody Almond and Stu Bickel.

He said for the most part he liked what he got from his big guys, too, and Mikko Koivu set up Thomas Vanek for a second-period power-play goal and Mikael Granlund set up Zach Parise for a nice goalmouth tap in after some good battle and cycling from Parise, Granlund and Jason Pominville.

Here is my article in Friday's paper on Parise and Koivu being split up to start training camp. Here is my notebook from the game.

Darcy Kuemper stopped 14 of 15 shots and had no chance had denying Sutter's first goal, which was set up by Beau Bennett. On a 3-on-5, Marco Scandella picked off a pass and took off with Matt Cooke.

But Kuemper, other than a couple miscues with the puck, was happy with his game, as was Yeo.

"He looked in control, comfortable and definitely didn't have any chance on the one he gave up, Yeo said.

Said Kuemper, "It was a good starting game and now I just have to keep getting better and preparing for opening night."

On Vanek's goal where he established position at the goalmouth and scored off a redirection, Yeo said, "He's got a knack for that, that's for sure. This is what we talked about, how he's able to position himself, free his stick up. There were a couple others where he got sticks on pucks where a lot of people can't get their sticks on. He's a threat there and it's nice when Mikko recognizes that."

Vanek was also a pest in the offensive zone, forcing a couple turnovers and near scores with Koivu and Justin Fontaine. The line combined for seven shots.

Matt Dumba had two shots in 24-plus minutes and made a nice play to Koivu before Vanek's goal. But Yeo noted how prior he passed up a shot.

"These are the things that we'll teach him and things that we'll work on, just scanning the ice and recognizing there was an opportunity. He could have grabbed the puck and taken a couple strides toward the end and really let one rip, but he's got that quickness to jump backdoor and jump into holes and he's a threat to shoot back there."

On the Parise-Granlund-Pominville line, which had a bunch of good plays around the net, Yeo said, "They were good all night long. I liked a lot of our top guys tonight. First game, you always know that these guys, … the pace of play picks up from the scrimmages, so now getting that first game, I'd expect us to keep getting better."

Erik Haula had a tough night. Had some glaring turnovers and appeared to get hurt late, although he stayed in the game. Jason Zucker also had a tough night physically. He took an uncalled high stick, got run a few times and got into a fight with Despres, who is 6-foot-4. Zucker is not 6-4, so he took a pretty good whipping and was seen walking into the medical room after the game.

But he stayed in the whole game and had a strong second half of the game, especially on the penalty kill.

"He's playing hard. He's just showing he wants to be here," Yeo said. "We're trying to give him every chance and he's buying into it and doing a good job."

Defenseman Keith Ballard sustained a lower-body injury. He had soreness in the area where he had his surgery to repair a sports hernia, so the team was just being cautious.

When Ballard left the game, Bickel, who was playing wing, slid over to sit with the defensemen. But he ended up not playing (in overtime, the Wild went with three forwards for part; Pominville), but it was another area where Bickel provides value.

On Dumba and Christian Folin, Yeo lumped them into the same category, saying, "Both of them showed strong moments and both showed some young moments." Yeo said Dumba and Folin, vying for that sixth D spot, will see more preseason action so the team can help them "get rid of the young moments."