In the middle of a heated best-of-seven second-round series with the Vegas Golden Knights, the Edmonton Oilers have no time to dwell on what could’ve been. But boy oh boy, it’ll be hard to get over how they lost a tight Game 3 in Edmonton.

With an opportunity to take a commanding 3-0 series lead, the Oilers were this close, quite literally mere seconds away, from a tense overtime at the end of the third period. But that was when Golden Knights winger Reilly Smith found space and threw a shot on net to see what could happen. You know, as one does. As it turns out, after some initial confusion and a video review, “what happened” was Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl accidentally tapping Smith’s shot in as he was trying to support Edmonton goaltender Stuart Skinner.

Oh. Oh, no.

That’s right. Draisaitl accidentally scored a horrible own goal to end the game and give life back to the Golden Knights in a playoff series that sure seemed like it was hanging in the balance.

After the game, Draisaitl was surprisingly quite measured after experiencing every hockey player’s worst nightmare. He blamed himself for being “unlucky” on a “bad bounce.” In a moment like that, I guess that’s all you can really do. In a credit to Draisaitl, he just appeared to be upset about losing a playoff game rather than fixating on a backbreaking, self-inflicted mistake more than anything:

“We didn’t sort it out very well to let the puck get into the slot. After that, it’s unlucky, it’s unfortunate. It goes off my stick & I’m just trying to keep it out of the net. It’s just a bad bounce.”

Leon Draisaitl on Vegas’ buzzer-beater goal. @Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/flLuBdD2Ea

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) May 11, 2025

Draisaitl’s response is the correct one in the middle of a tight playoff battle. Hockey can be beyond random sometimes. And sometimes, horrific bounces like this will go against you. It’s the inherent nature of the game. You either accept that or let it ruin you.

The good news for Draisaitl is that he can make up for this quickly in Monday night’s Game 4, when Edmonton will try to go up 3-1. With a victory, the Oilers can put themselves on the brink of a third appearance in the Western Conference Finals in the last four seasons.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Leon Draisaitl blamed himself for own goal in painful Oilers’ loss