By Craig Forde, Globe Correspondent

NORTH ANDOVER -- With uncertainty hanging in the air, Matt Sullivan’s overtime winner gave BC High a big boost, as they skated off with a 3-2 victory over St. John’s (Shrewsbury) at Lawler Arena on Sunday in the Super 8 tournament.

The victory provided the Eagles with hope of moving on to the crossover round on Wednesday, but not before the outcome of the Hingham-Malden Catholic game played out.

“We could've quit, we could've have packed it away, but we didn’t,” said BC High coach John Flaherty. “I’m proud of the resilience. We dug our heels in, fought back and I’m proud of them for that.”

The Eagles jumped to a first period lead when, 30 seconds into a power play, Sam Topham wound up from the point with a blast that Mario Pizzeri (37 saves) kicked off to his right. Matt Sullivan was camped in the left circle and pushed forward, pounced on the rebound and deposited it into the open left side of the net for a 1-0 lead at the 6:45 mark.

The Pioneers got on the board in the second, when Topham misfired as he tried to clear the puck out from behind his own net. The puck slowly drifted into the slot and Kevin Emmerling came in, popping it high over Peter Cronin’s left shoulder to tie the game at 6:18.

After a strong push in front of the Eagles net, Emmerling worked the puck behind the net and found Jay Duquette coming left-to-right into the slot where he wristed his shot glove side to beat Cronin (17 saves) high for a 2-1 lead, which would hold up heading into the third period.

A late, third period boarding call on St. John’s Andrew Smith gave the Eagles the man advantage with just 3:33 left in regulation and BC High worked its power play to perfection, cycling through the zone and firing point-blank shots on goal.

Tom Besinger launched a shot from the left side that Pizzeri saved, but the puck stopped at the base of his right pad and after whacking at it three more times, Besinger was finally able to tie the game.

Knowing they needed a two-goal win to even think about advancement, the Pioneers were forced to pull their goalie in a tie game, but could not muster enough of an attack in the final minute and the game went into overtime.

“I was telling them “see if we can get it down [in their zone] and call a timeout,”” said St. John’s coach Brian Murphy. “It was kind of strange in a 2-2 game to pull the goalie, but that’s what we had to do.”

Things got physical in the extra frame and both teams traded matching minors, leaving the penalty boxes congested with time ticking away in overtime.

Pioneers forward Chris Coveney started to take his puck out of the St. John’s zone, but was halted by Sullivan who ripped the puck from his stick, turned in the slot and fired a shot that beat Pizzeri glove-side.

“We made a quick change,” Sullivan said. “The defenseman got caught with the pucks between his skates, I shot the puck low and it went in.”