Jared Legien and the Kootenay Ice just about rained on the Prince George Cougars' parade.
The 18-year-old Ice left winger scored his second goal of the night with 34 seconds left in the third period to tie Thursday's WHL preseason game 4-4 and force overtime in Kennewick, Wash.
But he didn't have an answer for Jansen Harkins, who scored 53 seconds into overtime to give the Cougars their second win in four preseason starts. Harkins buried the feed from Jesse Gabrielle, who finished the game with three assists. Max Martin also assisted on the game-winner.
Tied 3-3, Harkins restored the Cougars lead 4:47 into the final frame.
Josh Anderson, Aaron Boyd and Jared Bethune staked the Cats to a 3-0 lead in the first period, each scoring on goalie Payton Lee before Matt Alfaro got the Ice on the scoreboard early in the second period. Legien notched his first goal late in the second period and Fedor Rudakov tied it for the Ice, 1:28 into the third period.
Ty Edmonds blocked eight of the nine shots he faced in 30:08 of game action before he was replaced midway through the second period by Tavin Grant, who made 15 saves. Lee was busy in his 30-minute session, stopping 16 of 19 shots before he was replaced by Walter Jakob, who made 22 stops for the Ice.
The Cougars will play one more game in Kennewick today at 11 a.m., when they face the Portland Winterhawks. They wrap up the preseason next Friday at CN Centre against the Kamloops Blazers.
The Cougars added a European to their lineup Thursday when they acquired import forward Yan Khomenko. The 18-year-old native St. Petersburg, Russia played 45 games in the WHL last season for the Everett Silvertips, who picked him in the second round of the CHL import draft, 115th overall, in 2015. The six-foot-one, 174-pound Khomenko scored five goals and added four assists with 14 penalty minutes in his rookie season for the Silvertips.
To make room for him on the roster, the Cougars dropped 18-year-old Swedish forward Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, picked 28th overall by the Cats in the import draft in June. Jonsson-Fjallby, a fifth-round pick of the Washington Capitals in 2016, chose to remain in Sweden and did not report to the Cougars' camp.
