TAMPA — Charlie Lindgren knew he made a huge mistake the moment the puck left his stick.
The Washington Capitals goalie was trying to send the puck around the boards, but instead, he accidentally backhanded it right into his own net. The goal, credited to Brayden Point, gave the Tampa Bay Lightning the lead at 7:25 in the third period. It was a tough moment for Lindgren, especially since the Capitals had already fought hard to tie the game twice.
But the Capitals didn’t give up. Lindgren, laughing off his blunder, quickly tossed the puck out of the rink and got back to work. Just a few minutes later, defenseman John Carlson tied the game, and Tom Wilson scored the game-winning goal on a power play with 3:26 left, giving Washington a 5-4 win and a clean sweep of their two-game road trip in Florida.
“I can say, wholeheartedly, everyone on this team is bought in,” Lindgren said. “When I made that mistake, the guys picked me up. We all just laughed it off. It was probably the worst mistake I’ve made on the ice, but the team was there for me, and I respect them so much.”
Lindgren made 24 saves on 28 shots, including all 8 shots after his own goal. Tampa Bay’s goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 27 shots.
Capitals coach Spencer Carbery praised the team’s resilience. “We started slow, and it wasn’t pretty,” he said. “But we didn’t just let it be a bad night. We fought back.”
The first period was rough for Washington. Tampa Bay’s Point scored early with a quick shot, and then he added another goal on a power play. It wasn’t the start the Capitals wanted, and they knew they had to step it up.
In the second period, Washington played much better. It took them a while to score, but they kept pushing. Andrew Mangiapane scored a goal from a pass by Lars Eller, and soon after, Aliaksei Protas scored a shorthanded goal to tie the game. But just before the end of the period, Tampa Bay took the lead again with a goal from Michael Eyssimont.
Even though they were trailing again, the Capitals stayed focused. With family members in the stands for the team’s annual mentors trip, the players were determined to win for them.
Early in the third period, Dylan Strome tied the game once more. But then, Lindgren’s backhanded mistake put Tampa Bay ahead again, and Point got an unconventional hat trick.
“We were calm about it,” Strome said. “Chuckie has saved us so many times, and we knew we just had to keep going. Sometimes things happen, but we stayed calm and fought back.”
Just over three minutes later, Carlson scored again to tie it, and then Washington got a power play after Strome was hit with a high stick. Wilson, who hadn’t scored in 12 games, deflected a shot from Jakob Chychrun to give the Capitals their first lead of the game with 4:03 left.
“It felt good to finally get one,” said Strome, who lost part of a tooth on the play. “We got the win, and that’s all that matters.”
After the game, the team gave Lindgren their new “player of the game” award — a thick gold chain. The joke was that Lindgren should get credit for his first NHL goal, but the truth was, it was a moment of appreciation for everything Lindgren has done for the team over the years.
Coach Carbery said, “They really appreciate Chuckie. It’s not just talk — they’ll do whatever it takes to help him out.”
And Lindgren couldn’t be more grateful. “If we weren’t a close team, we could’ve been frustrated and given up. But we’re a tight group, and I knew we’d find a way to win,” he said. “It was a pretty sweet victory, not gonna lie.”