Gustavus returns to national semifinals for first time in 27 years

By Shane Frederick

ST PETER — 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.

“Not to sound corny, but we’re a family now,” he said. “We hang out with each other. We’re all equal on this team. (David Martinson) is the top goal scorer in the league, but you’d never know it by talking to him. (Swartout) is an all-conference goalie, but you’d never know it by talking to him. We all do our roles equally.”

Ask Lopes about the 2-0 win over Superior, and he’s quick to credit the defensemen who stood their ground in front of him and the forwards who backchecked hard.

“Superior didn’t get to any rebounds,” he said. “I was leaving some meatballs out there, and they cleared them away.

“That’s not my shutout. That’s a team shutout if I ever saw one.”

Gusties coach Brett Petersen said Lopes won the No. 1 job over the last couple of weeks because of his play, not because of the way Swartout played.

Lopes has a .909 save percentage and a 2.15 goals-against average and has won 11 games. Over the last four games, however, he’s stopped 94.7 percent of opponents’ shots and allowed 1.25 goals per game.

“(Lopes is) right now a calming influence,” Petersen said. “He’s not overly flashy; he’s just quiet back there. He doesn’t leave the net.

“He’s doing what he needs to be doing this time of year. He’s stopping what needs to be stopped, and, once in awhile, he pulls a rabbit or two out of his hat.”

In November, Gustavus defeated Stout 6-5 in Menomonie, Wis. Neumann and Hobart both come out of the ECAC (Eastern College Athletic Conference) Division III West.

Petersen said he thinks the Frozen Four field is wide open. Gustavus is the only school that’s been there before, and it hasn’t been there for 27 years.

So if experience isn’t a factor, perhaps a hot goalie will be.

“(Lopes) took a major risk coming west,” Petersen said. “Now, he has the opportunity to close out his career back east.”