‘Dream come true' for Acciari in Bruins debut

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BOSTON -- It was a night to remember for Bruins rookie Noel Acciari, who made his NHL debut Tuesday night.

The B’s beat the Calgary Flames, Acciari was on the ice for Boston’s first goal in his first shift of the game, and he ended up getting his feet wet with nearly 10 minutes of ice time as the fourth line’s gritty center.

For a kid who grew up in Johnston, R.I., and was a captain at Providence College, it was, he said, "a dream come true" with his hometown team. Or home-region team, in this case.

“You know, going into it, I just tried to play my game and do anything I could to help the team out,” said Acciari. “Everything kind of went by really fast, actually. It’s just kind of a bit of a whirlwind. [I’ll just] take one day at a time and try and get better out here. Playing with these guys [like Landon Ferraro and Brett Connolly] will definitely do that. Just keep working hard.”

The gritty, hard-working Acciari finished with a plus-1 rating based on Ferraro’s strike in the first period, and totaled a shot on net, a couple of hits, and 4-of-7 faceoff wins in 8:31 of ice time on the fourth line and as a penalty-killing duo with Ferraro.

So how were the new guys -- Acciari and trade acquisitions John-Michael Liles and Lee Stempniak, who were playing their first games as Bruins -- from a coach’s perspective?

“They were good," said Claude Julien. "They were good. You’ve seen the guys [before] that we got in the trade, but I thought Noel . . . handled himself real well, very responsible and gritty. You know, [he] seemed to be in the right place for the most part. I thought he handled himself well for a guy in his first game.”

Acciari became the sixth player to make his NHL debut with the Black and Gold this season, joining Joonas Kemppainen, Tommy Cross, Colin Miller, Tyler Randell and Frank Vatrano. 

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