By Craig Forde, Globe Correspondent

NORTH ANDOVER – Sam Kurker’s overtime winner capped another thriller on Day 1 of the Super 8 tournament at Lawler Arena as St. John’s Prep escaped with a 4-3 victory over Springfield Cathedral.

“Everybody knows how important that first game is in the tournament,” said St. John's Prep coach Kristian Hanson. “We wanted to come out today and get a win. In the end we were fortunate to get a bounce.”

The last time these two teams met, just two weeks ago, the Prep made a miraculous comeback scoring four goals in the final five minutes of the game to walk away with a 5-5 tie.

The Eagles wanted to avoid being behind the eight-ball in this one and Andrew Brandano ensured that they wouldn’t be playing from behind at all when he stuffed home a puck just 1:28 into the game to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.

The second period started with another quick St. John’s Prep goal as Brian Pinho won a draw forward, picked up the puck and swept in on the left side before stuffing it past John Liquori for a 2-0 lead just 0:53 seconds in.

“We were just trying to get the puck deep and on net,” Pinho said. “I just skated hard to the middle and put one on. Our game plan was to crash the net and it went in for me.”

Frank Crinella got the Panthers on the board mid-way through the second period after picking the puck from the stick of Sam Kurker, then sweeping in from the left to backhand it past David Letarte on a short-handed bid, making it a 2-1 game.

Frank Crinella would pull Springfield Cathedral even when he followed up on a rebound off a shot from Peter Crinella, popping it past Letarte for his second of the game to make it 2-2 before the second intermission.

A power play opportunity allowed the Prep to start the third period like the other two, by scoring first, this time on a missile by Pinho just past the blue line to make it 3-2 at the 3:28 mark.

“I thought Brian was our best player out there,” Hanson said. “He had two big goals and he played well defensively. He was our player of the game.”

Two minutes later Peter Crinella knocked in a rebound for the Panthers second short-handed goal of the game, evening the score at 3-3 and as just like two weeks ago, regulation was not enough time to determine a winner, so a 12-minute sudden death overtime was tacked on to the proceedings.

As the extra frame wound down, a bouncing puck fell in front of Liquori who was unable to snag it in the air and Kurker swooped in on the doorstep to deposit the rebound, giving the Eagles the victory.

“Who better than Kurker to be the guy standing there,” Hanson said. “I saw that far, top-side open and Sam did a great job of putting it up there.”