ST. PAUL - Mahtomedi’s Corey Bohmert would fire a shot off the post or miss an opening in the net by the width of a skate blade. Then he’d make the long, lonely skate to the bench.

“Saving ’em coach,” he’d say on his arrival.

Sometimes the puck would bounce over Bohmert’s stick at the most inopportune of times. Or the opposing goalie would make one of those that-didn’t-just-happen saves.

Saving ’em coach.

An inexplicable lack of goal-scoring production from Bohmert, a senior forward oozing with athletic ability, became a running back-and-forth joke with Zephyrs' coach Jeff Poeschl. Well, more like it was a decidedly one-sided conversation. And short.

Saving ’em coach.

“For about, at least the last month, he’s had great opportunities but he’s been a little snakebit,” Poeschl said after three of those banked goals spilled out of Bohmert on Wednesday in No. 3 seed Mahtomedi’s 6-3 victory over unseeded Alexandria in a state Class 1A quarterfinal at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. “He’s been telling us he’s been saving them for when they count.”

A star running back on Mahtomedi’s football team, Bohmert entered the state tournament with eight goals. He’d scored just one since early February. 

And then, out they came. Bohmert scored 2:47 into game, one of the few first-period highlights for the Zephyrs as tourney jitters led to numerous uncharacteristic errors and they fell behind No. 16-2A Alexandria (14-13-1) 3-2 heading into the second.

“First period, I’m not even sure anyone was able to count the number of turnovers we had,” Poeschl said. “I was wondering who kidnapped our team.”

Bohmert scored the only goal of the second period, delivering on his promise to score when it mattered most by tying the score at 3-3 with 17 seconds left in the second period.

“It kind of set the tone for the third for sure,” Bohmert said. “The locker room was pretty hyped. We needed that."

No. 3-2A Mahtomedi (21-8-0) scored three third-period goals. Bohmert’s hat-trick goal put the Zephyrs ahead 5-3 with 11:20 remaining.

“We didn’t really win a lot of puck races and battles,” Alexandria’s Tyler Kludt said. “We did in the first period but that was kind of it.”

ST. PAUL - Charlie Drage and Corey Bohmert scored in the opening minutes of the third period to break open a tie game and lift No. 3 seed Mahtomedi to a 6-3 victory over unseeded Alexandria on Wednesday in a state Class 1A quarterfinal at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

Drage put the No. 3-2A Zephyrs (21-8-0) ahead 4-3 with his goal 48 seconds into the third period. Bohmert completed his hat trick 5:40 into the third to make it 5-3. Mahtomedi’s Carter Haycraft completed the scoring with 5:30 left.

No. 16-2A Alexandria (14-13-1) led 2-1 midway through the first period on Gavin Olson’s goal and took a 3-2 lead into the first intermission as Leo Kompelien scored with 8:04 left in the period.

Bohmert opened the scoring in the first and scored the only goal of the second, tying the score at 3-3 with 17 seconds left in the period. The senior has eight goals this season.

Mahtomedi outshot Alexandria 48-17, with 41 of those shots coming in the last two periods.