UMaine’s Ryan gains eligibility just in time Freshman class solid in season-opening win

The University of Maine hasn’t had much luck petitioning the NCAA.

For that reason, Maine hockey coach Tim Whitehead didn’t want to give freshman left wing Billy Ryan any false hopes when they petitioned the NCAA to obtain a waiver that would have made Ryan eligible for Sunday’s season-opening 7-1 win at Vermont.

But the NCAA Initial Eligibility Clearinghouse approved the waiver on Friday and Ryan scored a goal on Sunday.

Before being drafted in the third round by the New York Rangers in June, the Rangers had asked Ryan if he would be willing to take summer courses so he could attend Maine a year early instead of returning to Cushing Academy (Mass.).

So he took two courses at Quincy (Mass.) Community College to complete his educational requirements at Cushing.

He is taking four courses at Maine and Whitehead figured he would gain Ryan’s services for the second semester while hoping the waiver would be approved for immediate eligibility.

“We didn’t want him to get his hopes up based on our past experiences,” said Whitehead. “But he completed all his degree requirements, he was an honor student and his SAT scores were good.”

He said the NCAA made a “logical decision” in approving Ryan’s waiver.

Ryan said he “prepared all summer” in hopes he would be eligible immediately.

“I was ready to go,” said Ryan. “I was nervous the first couple of shifts but once I got used to it, I felt fine. I think I can play a little better but it was a pretty good debut.”

The three other freshmen skaters also impacted the score sheet as left wing Keenan Hopson had a goal and an assist, defenseman Tim Maxwell had two assists and right wing Rob Bellamy had an assist.

“The freshmen did a really good job. They are really athletically talented guys who have fit in real well so far,” said junior right wing Greg Moore.

Hopson said he thought things went “quite well.

“This is an awesome team to work with. It made things much easier. I just wanted to play well and go hard. [Scoring] was a bonus,” said Hopson.

Bellamy said the captains (John Ronan, Jeff Mushaluk) “did a great job teaching us the systems” last month and he became more comfortable as the game went along.

The team didn’t have its first full practice with the coaching staff until Saturday under NCAA guidelines.

Maxwell said he adjusted to the speed “right off the first shift and I just went from there. It was a lot of fun.”

Also, Bear freshman goalie Matt Lundin played the final 4:39 and stopped all four shots he faced.