The Columbus Blue Jackets fell to the Florida Panthers 1-0 in overtime at Nationwide Arena Thursday. The Jackets nabbed a point in their effort to get back into a wild card spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. They are now three points out of the wild card race with 14 games to play in the regular season.

Looming larger are the facts that Columbus has now lost seven of their last eight games and scored only one goal in their last 13 periods. Columbus is due to get some key players back in the coming days. Sean Monahan, Erik Gudbranson, Cole Sillinger, and Jake Christiansen have all been skating during recent practices. Their return could not come soon enough.

Florida’s Aleksander Barkov scored the only goal of the game Thursday. It came just 29 seconds into the overtime period with the Panther’s on a 4-on-3 power play. With 30 seconds left in the third, Columbus’s Kirill Marchenko was called for a delay-of-game penalty when he hit the puck over the glass. The Blue Jackets were able to kill the final moments of regulation, but did not fare as well in OT.

Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 26 shots he saw for his fifth shutout of the season. While he was the number on star of the game, Blue Jackets’ goalie Elvis Merzlikins was the second star. He made 27 saves on the night. Columbus did have a goal taken off the board midway through the third period when it was determined that Boone Jenner had kicked the puck into the net.

The Blue Jackets travel to Pittsburgh for a game Friday. It is the first time that they have had back-to-back contests this month. Columbus and the Penguins tangled on January 7 in Pittsburgh, with the Jackets coming away with a 4-3 shootout victory.