NEWARK, N.J.—A recent National Hockey League game between the New Jersey Devils and the Florida Panthers was a wild ride with 13 goals and an overtime winner. But the loudest cheers in the arena weren’t for either team: They were for the referees.

In the upper corner of Newark’s Prudential Center, a boisterous crowd of around 200 fans dressed in striped referee jerseys spent most of the game on their feet, celebrating every icing whistle as if it was a goal. Their heroes weren’t Devils stars Jack Hughes or P.K. Subban, they were Eric Furlatt and Corey Syvret, the officials for the night.