Donato, who landed six shots on goal in 19:40 of ice time, wasted little time getting on the board. After taking a feed from Danton Heinen through the neutral zone, Donato pulled up at the top of the right circle and fed a trailing Torey Krug, who immediately zipped a pass back to Donato. The rookie ripped a laser one-timer for career goal No. 1, which tied the game 1-1 at 5:41 of the second.
"Obviously you're never really going to expect to play in your first NHL game and have chances," said Donato, who had 26 goals in 29 games for Harvard this season. "For me, I was just going in with a positive attitude and no matter what role they had me in I was going to try and do it to my best and I was fortunate to get a couple bounces and it almost went in a couple times and obviously one went in and that was great too."
The 6-foot, 181-pound left shot became the eighth Bruin this season to notch his first career goal, joining Anders Bjork, Peter Cehlarik, Jake DeBrusk, Matt Grzelcyk, Heinen, Sean Kuraly, and Charlie McAvoy. He is also the first Bruins to have a multi-point game in his NHL debut since Jarno Kultanen had three assists in 2000.
"He's on the puck, as advertised, in terms of his compete," said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "Wanted to shoot the puck. I think early he was trying to make some plays and then realized, just play to your strength. Did a real good job. I didn't notice anything away from the puck.
"I'm sure there's a few teaching moments once you go back over the game tape and go from there. But I liked him a lot, and I'm sure Krech did, as well. They seemed to have some good chemistry."