when Ryan Donato played his first professional game.Three days after his junior season at Harvard ended Carolina Hurricanes Hats Authentic , Donato joined the Boston Bruins‘ lineup in the middle of a playoff chase in a top-six role with a spot on the power play.No pressure, kid.”I definitely had to learn quickly,” Donato said. ”Every game is important, so it had to click right away. I really didn’t have a choice.”Such is the task for Donato and a handful of other young prospects joining contenders in the eleventh hour of the NHL season. It has become common for teams with no postseason hopes to sign players out of school and play them late in the regular season like Vancouver did with Brock Boeser and Arizona with Clayton Keller a year ago.This season, some top teams are taking the chance, too.Just as the Bruins added Donato, Minnesota signed Jordan Greenway after his season at Boston University, Anaheim signed Troy Terry after the University of Denver was out of the NCAA Tournament and Nashville brought over Eeli Tolvanen from Europe after a full year in the Kontinental Hockey League – young talent added for the playoffs without the teams giving up anything, though coaches must now integrate a new player late in the season.”It’s tough if the kids aren’t good,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. ”With our team right now in the midst of this race, every little defensive situation has got to be done right.”Every shift is magnified this time of year, adding to the burden of trying to learn a team’s system. Donato, Greenway and Terry went right from college to the NHL, and Tolvanen had to adjust on the fly from the wider Custom Carolina Hurricanes Jerseys , European ice as Nashville tries to shore up home ice throughout the playoffs.”It’s kind of tough to come in the middle of the season and just jump in and you don’t know all the guys,” Tolvanen said. ”You have to do it at some point, so I think it’s a pretty good spot that I came a couple games before the playoffs.”Tolvanen benefited from two rounds of KHL playoffs with Jokerit and carried that intensity across the pond, while Terry and Greenway got a taste of playoff action in the NCAA Tournament. Donato’s season playing for his dad and former NHL forward Ted ended, and he suddenly had to ramp things up to carry a big load for Boston amid injuries to Rick Nash and others.Donato knew he couldn’t take a shift or a game off and has stepped up with seven points in his first nine games. Coach Bruce Cassidy wasn’t worried about getting the soon-to-be 22-year-old up to speed as much as seeing if Donato could handle the size, speed and pace of the NHL.”Most of these kids that come in are offensive-minded guys, so are they going to be able to make their plays and handle a man’s game?” Cassidy said. ”And he’s shown he’s able to do that.”Donato certainly had a body of work coming in, including leading the United States and tying for the tournament lead with five goals at the Olympics without NHL players. The other three young, late-season additions – all of whom also stood out at the Olympics – are being eased in.”We didn’t really do anything at the trade deadline because we knew that we were going to get Jordan Greenway,” Boudreau said. ”He’s gone through the Olympics and the world juniors all in the last year, so he knows what a little bit of pressure is all about. Playing at BU, he’s always (on) one of the better teams playing in important games. We pretty well thought he could handle all this.”Nashville is betting Tolvanen can handle it, too. The impressive Finnish winger set a KHL record with 36 points as an 18-year-old and looked increasingly more comfortable in his first three games for the Predators, who have their sights set on a return trip to the Stanley Cup Final.”It’s important for him to see ice time before the playoffs www.officialblackhawksproshop.com ,” coach Peter Laviolette said. ”The playoffs are a long haul. I think we learned that last year that you need a lot of people and a lot of parts and it’s important to get him involved in the game, with the team, in the systems.”Predators general manager David Poile recalled making one trade too many at a previous deadline and messing with his team’s chemistry.”You have to be careful on both sides because you don’t want to put a young player in a position to fail,” Poile said. ”You want to put him in a position to succeed. You also are very respectful of the players that have been with you all season long. It’s also OK to have depth but you don’t want to move everybody’s cheese too much.”In Boston, it helps that Donato is filling a spot vacated by injuries and showing immediately he belongs. In Nashville, Tolvanen’s reputation preceded him for anyone who saw what he did as one of the leading scorers at the Olympics.”It’s a special situation when somebody comes in this late and joins the team and under different circumstances, but it’s been great,” starting goaltender and fellow Finn Pekka Rinne said. ”Certainly it adds a new, special element to our team. I think it’s going to be beneficial down the road.”— GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Facing a Carolina Hurricanes team that leads the league in shots per game, the Arizona Coyotes needed every one of goalie Antti Raanta’s career high 48 saves. They also needed overtime after giving up a three-goal lead.Michael Grabner scored 1:17 into the extra period to lift the Coyotes to their fifth straight win, 4-3 over the Hurricanes on Friday night.Grabner credited his goalie after the victory.“He’s been playing great all year. A lot of big saves, and that kept us in the game in the second and third period,” Grabner said. “We have to thank him for that.”Brad Richardson Chicago Blackhawks T-Shirts Authentic , Brendan Perlini and Nick Cousins scored first-period goals for a 3-0 lead that Arizona gave up in the third period. However, Grabner put in Clayton Keller’s pass for the victory early in overtime.The Coyotes’ current winning streak is their longest since Oct. 26-Nov. 5, 2013.Alex Goligoski assisted on Arizona’s first three goals, a short-handed score, a power-play goal and a 5-on-5 tally before the first period had ended. Goligoski and Richardson have scored at least one point in four straight games.The Hurricanes tied it at 3 with a pair of deflected shots that caromed into the net late in the third period. Andrei Svechnikov scored with 6:18 remaining and Jordan Staal added the equalizer 40 seconds later.“We didn’t have the perfect game but we battled hard and got the two points,” Raanta said.“We looked tired,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “I thought the veterans won us the game tonight.”Petr Mrazek had 21 saves for the Hurricanes, who registered 51 shots, well over their league-leading average of 41.7 per game.Carolina center Sebastian Aho came up short in his quest to set an NHL record for consecutive games with an assist, his streak ending at 12.Former Coyotes player Jordan Martinook scored the Hurricanes’ first goal at 10:34 of the second period.“We can’t give ourselves a hole that we have to dig out of,” Martinook said. “One point’s huge … We get to overtime and we had our chances, and obviously they capitalized on theirs.”Richardson’s short-handed goal, with 6:53 left in first, was his NHL-leading third such goal of the season and fourth overall. Arizona’s seven short-handed goals as a team also leads the league Chicago Blackhawks Hoodies Authentic , and the Coyotes became the sixth team in NHL history to score short-handed in four straight games.“We’re not going to keep scoring at this type of pace, it’s insane,” Richardson said. “We’re just happy to kill the plays off and if we happen to score, it’s good.”The Coyotes made it 2-0 with 4:03 left in the opening period while on their second power play of the game. Perlini skated through three defenders and slipped a backhand shot past Mrazek.It took only 55 seconds to make it 3-0, as Nick Cousins beat Mrazek glove side for his first of the season.The NHL’s second-best penalty kill unit by percentage (90.6) going into Friday, the Coyotes did not allow a goal in six Hurricanes power plays.“It was a pretty good 50-minute effort, unfortunately we know we need to play the whole game,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said.NOTES: Coyotes D Kevin Connauton was scratched due to illness. Connauton missed his second straight game. … Raanta appeared in his 150th career game. … The crowd roared when Coyotes D Ilya Lyubushkin laid out to block Dougie Hamilton’s shot with his skate in the second period, with Raanta out of the net. … Martinook was in the starting lineup against his former team and acknowledged the crowd when welcomed back by the public address announcer. … Hurricanes C Victor Rask has now missed every game this season with an injured hand.UP NEXTHurricanes: At Vegas on Saturday night.Coyotes: Host Philadelphia on Monday night.