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VIDEO: Prince George Cougars alum Jansen Harkins takes off in NHL playoff debut

Jansen Harkins pots first Stanley Cup playoff goal
Kyle Balzer
Kyle Balzer

Jansen Harkins has hit the ground running!

The Prince George Cougars' all-time points leader scored his first career NHL postseason goal this morning (Aug. 3), which gave Winnipeg a 1-0 lead against Calgary in Game Two of their 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifying series.

"It's pretty exciting, " said Harkins during an interview with Sportsnet following the big milestone moment.

"You grow up trying to win the Stanley Cup, so whatever I can do to kind of help out and obviously that's a very exciting moment for me."

Harkins was called into the Jets' lineup after star forwards Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine were placed on injured reserve from incidents in Game One on Saturday (Aug. 1).

He scored on a breakaway pass 7:18 into the opening period from teammate Adam Lowry and put the puck under the left arm of Flames' veteran goaltender Cam Talbot.

The Jets eventually won by a score of 3-2 to tie the series at 1-1, despite coughing up a two-goal lead in the middle frame.

"I think we just kind of tried to open up the game a little bit too much," added Harkins, who clocked in under 9.5 minutes of ice time today.

"They've got a lot of skilled guys over there and we just got to try and stick to our game, which is keeping it simple and just grinding them down low."

The 23-year-old played four seasons with Prince George, potting 242 points in 275 regular-season games with 75 goals and a franchise-high 167 assists, and helped the Cougars to their first B.C. Division title in 2017.

Harkins scored his first-ever NHL goal on Feb. 6 for the Jets in a 4-2 road victory against the defending Stanley Cup-champion St. Louis Blues.

The North Vancouver product has also frequently hopped between the NHL and AHL this year.

He won the Manitoba Moose 2019-20 team MVP award after scoring 31 points in 30 games, while adding seven points in 29 games with Winnipeg.