Matt Lane, BU men’s hockey senior, leads through example

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[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Boston University men’s hockey team had a 2-0 deficit during the second intermission, and just couldn’t seem to get it going against Cornell University in the biennial Red Hot Hockey tournament at Madison Square Garden. The team needed a push in the right direction — not just from the coaches, but also from the players.

There are spark plugs, but then there’s Matt Lane. After the coaches leave the room during intermission, Lane is the one to stand up during the next couple minutes and read the room, pumping guys up or helping calm guys down.

“We know that he’s gotten up and done some yelling and screaming in the room when things weren’t going well,” BU assistant coach Scott Young said about Lane, the team’s senior assistant captain. “And the team has responded, and we’ve come out and had strong third periods.”

There’s also telling someone to do something, and then there’s actually going out and doing it. Lane’s fellow senior assistant captain, Danny O’Regan, credits Lane with being one of the most vocal leaders on the team as well as someone who “scores huge goals for us on the ice.”

In that Red Hot Hockey game in November, after amping up his teammates, Lane assisted on the game-tying goal late in regulation. He later scored the winning shootout goal to give BU its first trophy of the 2015-16 season.
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Lane is no stranger to trophies or success. His high school team in Greece, New York became the second team in state history to finish the year undefeated in 2009. He then moved away from his Rochester hometown area to Toronto and played for the Mississauga Reps of the Greater Toronto Hockey League for the 2009-10 season, then moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to play with the National Team Development Program for two years. He’s always been on the go, always been on the move.

“I like change,” Lane said. “Just never wanting to be bored, liking to be challenged, to adapt and change.”

Then, tilting his head in a slight admission of guilt, Lane said, “Maybe a weakness of mine is I don’t really know how to relax.”

This always-on-the-go attitude was spurred in part by growing up and competing with his brother, Phil, who also played hockey. Neither of their parents played hockey, but their father played football in college, and his passion for sports translated to his sons. Matt and Phil played all sorts of sports together — they would “play [hockey] in the living room with oven mitts on their feet as skates,” their mother, Christine, recalled, or roller hockey in their cul-de-sac or football in their front yard.

“Ever since we were young, we were very competitive in anything, not even hockey, just whatever sport it was,” said Phil, 23, who plays for the Springfield Falcons, the AHL affiliate of the Arizona Coyotes. “I think Matt pushed me, and I definitely pushed him too.”

Phil played in the Ontario Hockey League, opting to go the junior route before his professional career, whereas Matt chose to attend college. He joined BU for the 2012-13 season as a true freshman, playing in 37 of BU’s 39 games and tallying seven points. 

Lane’s sophomore season, while he saw an increase in productivity — 16 points while playing all 35 games for BU — was marked by a coaching transition for the team and a 10-win, 21-loss season.

“That was probably the first losing team, record-wise, I had ever been on in my life,” he said.

The next year, things went much better when the team advanced to the national championship game, and Lane had 18 points.

But win or lose, there has never been a time when Lane lost his love for the game.

“He’s been passionate about it since he was three,” Christine said. “He looked at it and said, ‘I like that, Mommy. I can do that.’ And he went right out there, and I don’t think there’s been a day or a practice where he’s said, ‘I don’t feel good,’ or ‘I don’t want to go’ or ‘I can’t do this.’”

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Lane’s parents say he’s independent, a good teammate, likable and grounded. He’s never too intense. He’s positive, yet realistic.

After a loss to the University of Michigan in November, he refused to blame the Wolverines for limiting the Terriers’ chances.

“We’ve got to take responsibility for that,” he said.

He’s taken the brunt of factual errors, too. After notching an assist against the University of Vermont on Dec. 5, an announcement came over the PA system: Matt Lane had scored his 100th career point. One problem: It was actually his 50th career point. The correction was made, but quite a bit more quietly.

“I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it wasn’t 100,” he said, laughing, following that game, in which he scored a career-best three points. “I wish.”

But those 50 career points came, frequently in big moments. He’s had two game-winning goals and seven game-winning assists over the course of his BU career. He had a huge goal in last season’s NCAA Tournament matchup against the University of Minnesota Duluth, to give BU a 2-1 lead at the time, and to help propel the Terriers to a Frozen Four berth. He had that shootout goal against Cornell, too.

Lane’s teammates, family members and coaches agree — he’s more than just talk.

“He can be vocal, but he definitely will lead by example,” his brother said. “If one guy does the right thing, the whole team will.”

But Lane doesn’t want to go down in BU history for only his on-ice contributions.

“I want to be remembered as a good person,” Lane said. “A great leader. I guess an all-around guy. I feel like academically, socially, on the ice hockey rink, in the weight room, I always try to be the best leader I can be, best person I can be, a ton of energy. Just a guy who always brought it every day.”

“I wouldn’t ever want anybody to ever say anything bad about me. And I don’t think anybody ever would.”

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Lane spends mornings taking part in shooting drills with Young, garnering every piece of knowledge he can from the two-time Stanley Cup champion who’s played more than 1,000 NHL games. After his team lost in the national championship game during his junior year, Lane knew he had to step up and be one of the team’s top contributors in his final go-around. He knew his personal success would translate into team success.

“I remember talking with him last year after the final game, and he was so determined to get back,” Young said. “He was talking about it right away. Two hours after the game, he was talking about getting back, and how we have to focus on getting to this point again.”

Lane’s worked on his shooting and his faceoffs, and that practice time has paid off. With plenty of hockey left to be played this season, he’s already well surpassed his career high in points for a season — at 25 points through 30 games in 2015-16, third-best on the team. He’s nearly doubled his goal total from last year, with 14 this season compared to 2014-15’s total of eight.

This year, he’s comfortably moved into a top-six role, centering fellow classmate Ahti Oksanen, who leads the team in scoring with 33 points, and freshman Jordan Greenway, who has tallied at least one point in 13 of his last 17 games. Lane attributes them for much of his success this season. After posting ratings of minus-6, minus-5 and plus-3 in his first three seasons, respectively, he now holds a plus-20 mark for his senior season.

Lane plans to take hockey as far as it will take him, but isn’t too focused on post-graduation plans yet. (His mother does note, however, that he wants a future job where he can keep golfing and playing occasional online bingo for money — his favorite hobbies. Lane personally ranks himself as a top-five golfer on BU’s team.)

But for now, it’s about what lies immediately ahead — winning games, winning trophies, winning a national championship. It’s the “unfinished business,” as he called it.

“He’s just a winner,” O’Regan said. “He wants to win at everything he does.”

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