The Columbus Blue Jackets dropped their second straight game Saturday night, falling 3-1 to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.

Dallas jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Mikko Rantanen and Thomas Harley, with Harley’s goal coming in the final second of the frame.

After a scoreless middle frame, Columbus appeared to get a much-needed goal by Val Nichushkin early in the third period, but the Stars successfully challenged for offside to keep the game at 2-0.

Minutes later, the Blue Jackets did get on the board for the first — and only — time when Damon Severson scored his second goal of the season.

Zach Werenski picked up the primary assist and became the first Blue Jacket to reach double-digit assists on the season, while Kent Johnson’s secondary assist was his team-leading 12th point of the campaign.

It would be as close as Columbus would get, though, as the Blue Jackets were unable to find the game-tying goal despite a few good chances late. Arttu Hyry sealed the Dallas victory with an empty-net goal in the final second.

Jet Greaves made 14 saves for the Blue Jackets, while his counterpart Jake Oettinger stopped 24 of 25 shots for the Stars. Ivan Provorov made his season debut after missing the first 11 games with a lower-body injury, logging 19:31 of ice time.

“Listen, we keep up that effort that we’re showing right now, good things are gonna happen for this hockey club,” head coach Rick Bowness said. “We’ll go on a run … our best hockey’s ahead of us. Right now, that game tonight is how we want to play.” 

Severson echoed a similar sentiment.

“We felt that we had really good second and third periods and played our game, had some chances,” he said. “Just weren’t able to get that tying goal, unfortunately.”

Here’s how the Blue Jackets came away without a treat on Halloween, and moved to 5-7-0 on the season:

DAL: 1, CBJ: 0 (1ST PERIOD, 17:44 REMAINING)

The Stars strike first on the power play just over two minutes into the game. Jason Robertson moves the puck to Wyatt Johnston near the left side of the Columbus net, and Johnston quickly sends a backhand pass across the crease to Rantanen, who is waiting at the far post. No one is there to disrupt the pass through the crease, and Rantanen easily taps the puck past Greaves to give Dallas an early 1-0 lead.

DAL: 2, CBJ: 0 (1ST PERIOD, 0:01 REMAINING)

One second. That’s all that remains in the opening period when Harley doubles the Dallas lead on a goal Greaves would certainly want back. It comes after Hyry misses the net on a shot — but the puck wraps around the boards and finds Harley along the wall. With time running out, Harley quickly fires a shot toward the net that somehow floats by Greaves to make it 2-0 Dallas. No goal is good to give up, but soft goals in the final second are particularly brutal and proved to be a difference-maker in this one.