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Every referee has been in this situation: A penalty-or-play-on decision has to be made in a split second. You raise your arm to signal a penalty. A moment later, you realize that letting play continue would probably have been the better decision. Too late. You can't put your arm back down again.

That happened last night in the second period of Game Two of the Eastern Conference Finals. With the New York Rangers leading 2-1, Rangers' forward Carl Hagelin fell over the skates of Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Galchenyuk. A tripping penalty was called, and the Rangers' Martin St. Louis cashed in on the power play to give New York a 3-1 lead that held for the rest of the game.

The tripping play was one of those calls that is easier to make from the stands than from the ice, where things happen much faster and the official does not have the benefit of replays from various angles. Sometimes it takes the mind an extra moment to fully process what the eyes have have actually seen.

Should a tripping penalty have been called? Probably not. Was it the most egregious error I've ever seen? Far from it.

Similar decision-making lags happen all the time with players. How many times have you seen a player hastily male a pass that gets intercepted and it looks the player realized even before the puck got picked off that he should have hung onto the puck? The player's reflexes kicked in as soon as the eye saw an "open lane" ahead just before the brain recognized an oncoming attacker coming into the peripheral vision.

At any rate, the disputed tripping call last night is getting overplayed today. The Canadiens did not lose because of a single call in the game. The Habs lost because Henrik Lundqvist was all but unbeatable in making 40 saves. They lost because they went 0-for-4 on their own power plays. They lost because the other team executed better than they did.

Regardless of the sport or the time period, blaming the officials is a convenient excuse for losing. Canadiens coach Michel Therrien leaned on that flimsy crutch after the game.

"To win a hockey game, first of all you need some breaks and you need some calls at the right time," Therrien said.

Baloney. To win a hockey game, especially in the playoffs, you have to outplay the other team and find ways to solve their goaltender. Teams that wait for "breaks" and "calls at the right time" rarely win.

Both teams got a fluky goal apiece to open the scoring but the other two goals were the result of New York outworking the Montreal defense and not giving rookie goaltender Dustin Tokarski a chance to make saves. The St. Louis goal was made possible by a screen in front of the goaltender. Montreal didn't do enough of those things, and New York goaltender Lundqvist stopped everything he had a chance to stop.

Ultimately, teams make their own luck. If the Canadiens are to come back from an 0-2 deficit in this series, they will need to play a lot better than they have in the first two games. As Forrest Gump would say, "And that is all I have to say about that."

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Paul Stewart holds the distinction of being the first U.S.-born citizen to make it to the NHL as both a player and referee. On March 15, 2003, he became the first American-born referee to officiate in 1,000 NHL games.

Today, Stewart is an officiating and league discipline consultant for the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and serves as director of hockey officiating for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).

The longtime referee heads Officiating by Stewart, a consulting, training and evaluation service for officials. Stewart also maintains a busy schedule as a public speaker, fund raiser and master-of-ceremonies for a host of private, corporate and public events. As a non-hockey venture, he is the owner of Lest We Forget.

In addition to his blogs for HockeyBuzz every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, Stewart writes a column every Wednesday for the Huffington Post.