Matt Lopes wanted to go home during Gustavus Adolphus College’s upcoming spring break, but his dad refused to buy him a plane ticket back to Massachusetts.

Instead, John Lopes made his son a deal.

“He said, ‘Get to the Frozen Four in New York,’” said Matt, a senior goaltender for the Gustavus men’s hockey team, “and he’d get me home from there.”

Lopes held up his end of the bargain, leading the Gusties to the NCAA Division III Frozen Four this weekend in Lake Placid, N.Y.

“He told me this before the MIAC championship,” Matt said, “so I was under the gun.”

Lopes has started the Gusties’ last four games, winning them all, including a 5-2 victory over Hamline in the MIAC finals and a 33-save shutout in the NCAA quarterfinals Saturday at Wisconsin-Superior.

Gustavus is in the national semifinals for the first time since 1982.

The 15th-ranked Gusties will play No. 2-ranked Wisconsin-Stout at 3 p.m. Friday In the following game, No. 6 Hobart (N.Y.) will play No. 12 Neumann (Pa.). The championship game will take place at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Lopes is a rarity on the Gustavus roster.

He’s one of just three players not from Minnesota and the only one who grew up east of the Wisconsin border.

But Lopes did what few easterners do when he transferred from UMass.-Boston two years ago — go west to play college hockey.

“It’s a civil war; it really is,” Lopes said of the sport’s east-west rivalry. “People take hockey a lot more seriously here, and people are nicer. ... I’d say I’m an eastern guy who’s turning west.”

Sophomore Josh Swartout, the All-MIAC goaltender with whom Lopes split time for the majority of the season, said Lopes has influenced his teammates, too.

“He’s turned some west guys east, too,” Swartout said.

The truth, Lopes said, is that there is neither east nor west in the Gusties locker room, which is why he thinks they’re still playing.