There were 6 games played in the National Hockey League on March 21, 2008.
Blake Comeau scored at 4:46 in the first period to put the Islanders in the lead. Travis Zajac tied the score later in the period with a power play goal. Kyle Okposo scored his first NHL career goal against Martin Brodeur on a power play late in the third period to break the 1-1 tie. Trent Hunter scored an empty net goal with 19 seconds remaining, securing the Islanders' victory. New York snaps a 6 game winless streak, against a team they've beaten 6 out of 7 times this season. Wade Dubielewicz made 34 saves for the Islanders.

Mike Richards scored a first period goal to put the Flyers ahead early in the game. Daniel Briere scored his 27th of the season over halfway through the third period. Marek Malik's goal 1:11 later brought the Rangers within 1, then a couple minutes after that, Nigel Dawes tied the score with his 12th goal of the season. Briere scored his second of the night with 3:37 left in regulation. Jaromir Jagr tied the score with 1:51 remaining to force overtime. Richards and Jeff Carter each scored in the shootout for the Flyers; Martin Biron stopped the attempts by Dawes and Brendan Shanahan to give the Flyers their second win in a row.

Jason Blake scored first for the Maple Leafs. That was followed by a Darcy Tucker power play goal a few minutes later, which put Toronto ahead by 2. Thomas Vanek scored his 32nd of the season for Buffalo to bring them within a goal 31 seconds into the second period, but Anton Stralman scored at 8:27 to put Toronto back in a 2 goal lead. Matt Stajan also scored for Toronto late in the third period. Vesa Toskala made 35 saves on 36 shots for Toronto, and earned his 31st win of the season.

Alexander Ovechkin broke the scoreless tie with less than 5 minutes to go in the first period. Tobias Enstrom scored Atlanta's first goal of the game on a power play, which tied the score. Jim Slater gave the Thrashers the lead with a short handed goal. Slater also scored with less than 4 minutes remaining in the second period, putting Atlanta up by 2. Ovechkin scored his second of the night, his 60th of the season, over halfway through the third period. A pair of goals 32 seconds apart by Nicklas Backstrom, which retook the lead for Washington. Boyd Gordon scored an empty net goal for the Capitals with 8 seconds left. Ovechkin had 4 points, assisting on Backstrom's second goal, and the empty netter. Backstrom had three points, the assist being his 50th of the season.

Brian Rolston broke a scoreless tie about 5 minutes into the second period, a shot which deflected in off the hip of Vancouver defenseman Willie Mitchell, giving the Wild the lead. Branko Radivojevic gave Minnesota a 2 goal lead against their Northwest division rivals. The Canucks got on the scoreboard 4:20 into the third period; Sami Salo's 6th goal of the season made it a one goal game. The Canucks outshot the Wild 22-10 in the second and third periods. Niklas Backstrom stopped 30 of Vancouver's 31 shots, improving his record to 29-13-8. Roberto Luongo allowed two goals on 21 shots for Vancouver.

Joe Thornton scored 40 seconds into the first period, giving the Sharks an early 1 goal lead. Todd Marchant tied the score for Anaheim 5:35 into the second period. Jeremy Roenick scored his 508th career goal on a Sharks power play 1:12 into the third, a goal that would turn out to be the game winner. Roenick is now ahead of Jean Beliveau for 36th place in NHL goal scoring history. Evgeni Nabokov only faced 13 shots throughout the game, none at all in the third period. He allowed just the one goal early in the second period.

Today's Player of the Day is Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals. He had 2 goals and 2 assists in Washington's 5-3 win over the Atlanta Thrashers. Ovechkin's first assist of the night was on the game-winning goal by rookie Nicklas Backstrom; his second goal of the night was his 60th of the season, becoming the first player to score 60 or more goals in a season since 1995-96, when Jaromir Jagr and Mario Lemieux each reached that milestone.
For information on the selection process of the Player of the Day, see this page.

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National Hockey League news: March 22, 2008