You’d be forgiven if you feared losing your hand while trying to shake Zach Stejskal’s.

The junior goaltender from Grand Rapids is blessed with an impressive set of mitts and on Thursday night he used them to snag 42 of the 45 shots blasted at him by various Edina Hornets.

Stejskal’s extraordinary performance, coupled with Micah Miller’s supreme individual effort, powered the Thunderhawks to a 5-3 win over Edina on the first day of the Edina Holiday Classic at Braemar Ice Arena.

“We always get incredible competition, and we learned a lesson tonight,” Grand Rapids coach Trent Klatt chuckled after the win. “We ran into a great Edina hockey team, and they took it to us for 51 minutes tonight.”

The Thunderhawks, slotted at No. 4 in the latest Class AA Let’s Play Hockey rankings, took a 3-1 lead over the Hornets (3-2-0) after two periods, with North Dakota commit Gavin Hain, Connor Stefan and Drake Anderson netting one goal each. Luke Johnson scored for the Hornets on the power play in the first period. 

The goals by Stefan and Anderson indicate that the Thunderhawks (6-0-0) could be closer to finding some depth behind the first line of the aforementioned Hain, Minnesota commit Blake McLaughlin and St. Cloud State commit Micah Miller. 

“We need those players to contribute and score, and hopefully they’ll continue to do so,” Klatt said of his second line players finding the net.

No. 7-AA Edina roared back in the third period, as Minnesota commit Sam Walker and Jett Jungels tacked on goals to tie the game before Grand Rapids’ Miller ended it with just 2:49 remaining in regulation.

McLaughlin added an empty-net goal for good measure in the final minute for the Thunderhawks.  

Stejskal’s performance on Thursday helps assuage his previous memories of the Holiday Classic, in which last season as a sophomore he allowed four goals to Eden Prairie in two periods of action.

The 6-foot-4 Stejskal, blessed with a shot-rejecting frame and outlandish athleticism, has found his stride as a junior after going 2-3-0 with a goals-against-average of 4.51 last season.

“I definitely have some more confidence, and I’m definitely seeing the puck better,” Stejskal said on Thursday, adding that playing on enemy ice is a special treat for the Thunderhawks. “When they’ve got their student section there, it gets us pumped up,” Stejskal said. 

Klatt says that Stejskal, who led Grand Rapids to the 2014 Bantam AA state title, is on his way to fulfilling the role the Thunderhawk coaching staff has believed he could, as he’s stopped 94 of 100 shots faced this season and has a record of 3-0-0. 

“He’s got his swagger back,” Klatt said simply. “He’s got confidence, he’s seeing the puck right now,” Klatt continued. “He doesn’t have to make the save, the pucks are hitting him, and he’s the guy we thought he would be.”