Washington Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren was able to laugh at himself after making “the worst mistake” he’s ever made on the ice.

It helped that his teammates came to his rescue and lifted the Capitals to a 5-4 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.

With the score tied at 3-3, Lindgren tried to play the puck behind him but accidentally fired it into his own net at 7:25 of the third period.

But the Capitals didn’t go into turmoil after Lindgren’s own goal put the Lightning ahead and just three minutes later John Carlson Washington even answered with 9:30 to go.

Tom Wilson then put the Capitals ahead, scoring a power-play goal with 3:26 left, lifting them to their sixth consecutive road win.

“You clearly have two choices at that point: you can go into your shell or you can fight,” Lindgren said. “It wasn’t fun at the time, but the guys rallied around me and found a way to get a big win.”

Wednesday’s win came despite Tampa Bay holding leads of 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3.

Lindgren credited his teammates for using the own-goal blunder to fuel their comeback instead of panicking.

“When I made that big mistake, we all laughed about it,” said Lindgren, who finished with 24 saves. “Even I threw that puck out of the rink and I was kind of chuckling to myself. It was obviously the worst mistake I’ve probably ever made in my life when it comes to ice. I don’t know what I was thinking. … The guys picked me up and I have a lot of respect for those guys.’

The Capitals then had fun with Lindgren’s mistake in the locker room and awarded him the team’s gold chain that goes to the player of the game.

THIS. TRAVEL.#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/s7nmKtsdOC

— Capitals of Washington (@Capitals) November 28, 2024

“If we hadn’t been a close team, we could have been frustrated and packed it up and sent it off,” Lindgren said. “I knew there was no chance. This team is too good. There are too good guys in the locker room here and we found a way to make it happen. It was a great win, I’m not going.” lie.”

This report used information from The Associated Press.