Washington Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren was able to laugh at himself after committing what he called “the worst mistake” he has ever made on ice.
It helped that his teammates went on to bail him out, rallying the Capitals to a 5-4 victory Wednesday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
With the score tied at 3-3, Lindgren tried to play the puck behind him but inadvertently fired it into his own net at 7:25 of the third period.
But the Capitals didn’t get rattled after Lindgren’s own goal put the Lightning in front, answering just three minutes later when John Carlson pulled Washington even with 9:30 left.
Tom Wilson then put the Capitals ahead, scoring a power-play goal with 3:26 left in regulation to lift them to their sixth straight win on the road.
“You’ve obviously got two choices in that moment: You can either go in your shell or you can go and battle,” Lindgren said. “It wasn’t fun in the moment, but the guys rallied around me and found a way to get a big win.”
Wednesday’s victory came despite Tampa Bay holding leads of 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3.
Lindgren credited his teammates for using the own-goal gaffe to fuel their comeback instead of panicking.
“When I made that big mistake, we all pretty much laughed it off,” said Lindgren, who finished with 24 saves. “Even me, I chucked that puck out of the rink and I kind of chuckled to myself. It was obviously the worst mistake I’ve probably ever made in my life in terms of on ice. I don’t know what I was thinking. … The guys picked me up and I’ve got a lot of respect for those guys.”
The Capitals had fun with Lindgren’s error in the locker room afterward, awarding him the team’s gold chain that goes to the player of the game.
“If we weren’t a close team, we could’ve been frustrated and kind of packed it in, mailed it in,” Lindgren said. “I knew there was no chance. This team, we’re too good. There’s too good a guys in the locker room here, and we found a way to get it done. It was a pretty sweet victory, I’m not going to lie.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
