With their season on the line, the Rangers delivered the collective performance of a lifetime. Unfazed by the Sabres’ superior speed and the incomprehensibly inconsistent work of the officials, the gritty Rangers persevered and came away with a thrilling 2–1 double-overtime victory over the President’s Trophy winners. Defenseman Michal Rozsival, playing with an injured knee, fired the winning goal from the point past Sabres netminder Ryan Miller; now Buffalo holds only a 2–1 lead in the series, which resumes tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden.

When this series began, the Sabres — standing up to the Rangers’ initial physical onslaught — took a seemingly insurmountable 2–0 series lead. Seemingly insurmountable to many, perhaps, but not to these Rangers, who are showing the kind of character that Cup champions display at this time of year.

In particular, captain Jaromir Jagr has risen to the occasion, delivering some of his finest performances since arriving on Broadway late in the 2003–04 season. Powerful on the puck and impervious to the clutching and grabbing inexplicably allowed by the officials, Jagr was all over the ice, dominant no matter what combination of Sabres was matched against him. On the game’s opening goal, 33 seconds into the second stanza, he bulled through the crease and buried the rebound of a Martin Straka shot that had trickled between Miller’s leg-pads.

The Blueshirts should have taken a 2–0 lead 3:36 into the second period when a Marcel Hossa pass redirected off Karel Rachunek’s skate and into the Sabres’ goal. But after a lengthy review, the officials incorrectly determined that Rachunek had directed the puck into the net with a “distinct kicking motion.” As if to emphasize the point, referee Paul Devorski demonstrated an exaggerated kicking motion when announcing the “no goal” call.

But by demonstrating an actual kicking motion, Devorski only undermined the off-ice officials’ verdict. Because had they even casually looked at Rachunek’s upper torso while carefully reviewing what his lower half did, they would have realized that he was getting hooked to the ice while the puck made contact with his skate; at the same time, he was actually swiping at the puck with his stick.

Even if one were to make the specious argument that Rachunek intentionally redirected the puck into the net with his skate, the absence of a kicking motion should have rendered this debate completely moot.

The goal was disallowed despite evidence supporting its legitimacy, and that terrible call — combined with the officials’ blatant disregard for the interference meted upon Jagr all afternoon — provided the Blueshirts with far more adversity than the Sabres did at any point in the contest.

But the plucky Rangers persevered, outshooting the Sabres 46–39 despite Buffalo’s 17:13 to 10:00 edge in power play time. Only two penalties were called on the Sabres during regulation, both in the first period. Meanwhile, the Rangers were shorthanded seven separate times during the game’s first 60 minutes. Ironically, three of those calls were made against Jagr for various interference calls, making it clear that he was the focus of the officials’ attention, if not their judiciousness.

Now, it’s fairly noted here that to officiate NHL games is an incredibly difficult task. The on-ice officials must stay out of the way of the action while simultaneously watching 12 players and a puck, with the game moving faster by the season as player conditioning and equipment improve. But with the league continuously espousing the viewpoint that the officiating should be as consistent as possible from game to game and from shift to shift, the disregard shown Jagr was all the more conspicuous.

The Rachunek call, of course, is a different story entirely. There, the onus of accuracy was removed from the on-ice officials, placed instead upon the off-ice replay officials and the war room in Toronto.

The Rangers’ lead stood until the Sabres finally converted on the power play, Daniel Briere blasting a slap shot past Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist to even the score at one, which is how things remained when regulation concluded. With just less than one minute left in the first overtime period, Derek Roy ripped a shot past Lundqvist. But the most lethal bullet the Blueshirts had to dodge rang off the far goalpost and out of harm’s way.

It is often speculated by the press outside New York that the league favors the Rangers at every opportunity. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. From the owners’ lockout after the Blueshirts’ Cup win in 1994 to the imposition of a salary cap that prevents the Rangers from freely outbidding small-market teams for top talent, the NHL instead appears to be doing everything within its power to prevent its most marketable American team from leading it back to relevance on the national sports scene.

Luckily for the officials, and the NHL at large, the Rangers still managed to win. Had they fallen behind three games to none, Madison Square Garden would have had a morguelike atmosphere. But instead, this is shaping up to be a long, exciting series, with plenty of scintillating hockey still to come. And as long as the Rangers are still in the mix, interest in the Stanley Cup playoffs will grow exponentially, right in lockstep with the Blueshirts’ confidence.

Mr. Greenstein is the editor in chief of InsideHockey.com.