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 then bailed him out, leading the Capitals to a 5-4 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.

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

But the Capitals weren’t fazed after Lindgren’s own goal gave the Lightning the lead, answering just three minutes later when John Carlson tied Washington with 9:30 left.

Tom Wilson then gave the Capitals the lead, scoring a power play goal with 3:26 left in regulation to give them their sixth straight road win.

“At this moment you obviously have two options: you can either go into your shell or you can go into battle,” Lindgren said. “It wasn’t fun at the moment, but the guys took care of me and found a way to get a big win.”

Wednesday’s victory came despite Tampa Bay leading 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3.

Lindgren praised his teammates for using the own goal error to fuel their comeback rather than panicking.

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

The Capitals then laughed at Lindgren’s mistake in the locker room and presented him with the team’s gold chain, which goes to the player of the game.

THE. TRIP.#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/s7nmKtsdOC

– Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 28, 2024

“If we weren’t a cohesive team, we might have gotten frustrated and somehow wrapped it up and sent it in the mail,” Lindgren said. “I knew there was no chance. This team, we are too good. There are too good guys in the locker room and we found a way to do it. It was a pretty sweet win, I’m not going to lie.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.