NHL fans left in astonishment at ‘one of the worst own goals you’ll ever see’

Washington Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren produced a baffling own goal on Wednesday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

With the game tied 3-3 in the third period, Lindgren picked up the puck near his goal with a defender closing him down, before turning and sliding a backhand pass into his own net.

It appeared as though the goalie had attempted to play the puck behind his net, though the move clearly went horribly wrong.

He unsurprisingly looked dejected afterwards as he span the puck off the ice before being consoled by a teammate.

Fans were left in shock by the sequence as they reacted to a clip from B/R Open Ice on X.

Lindgren appeared to be trying to play the puck behind his net – but it went horribly wrong

‘WTF is going on??????,’ one asked.

‘Been there, lol. Just nowhere near the nhl level,’ a second fan added.

‘i would never leave my house ever again if i did this,’ a third added.

A fourth said, ‘Watching this back, I still have no idea what Lindgren was thinking.

‘I get not wanting to shoot it through the middle over to [John] Carlson, but with the time he had, why not carry it behind the net and rim it and let your defense handle it?’

And several others claimed it was ‘the worst own goal I’ve ever seen.’

Luckily for Lundgren, his error was atoned for just three minutes later as Carlson scored his third goal of the season – and the Capitals would go on to win in a thriller.

Tom Wilson scored a power-play goal with 3:26 left in regulation to lift the Capitals to a 5-4 victory against the Lightning.

With Anthony Cirelli in the box for a high-sticking, double-minor penalty with 4:03 left, Wilson tipped a Jakob Chychrun shot for the winning goal.

Lindgren, Tom Wilson #43, and the Washington Capitals celebrate the win against the Lightning

Aliaksei Protas scored shorthanded while Andrew Mangiapane, Dylan Strome and John Carlson scored for Washington, which has won six straight on the road.

Lindgren chipped in with 24 saves on the night.

Brayden Point registered his fifth career hat trick for Tampa Bay while Michael Eyssimont also scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 27 shots.

Tampa Bay had leads of 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3, with Point´s hat trick goal giving Tampa Bay the lead after Lindgren tried to play the puck behind him but fired it into his own net at 7:25 of the third period. But Carlson pulled the Capitals even again with 9:30 left.

Washington returns home to host the New York Islanders on Friday while the Lightning are at Nashville on Friday.