UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- During last night's second intermission, hundreds of orange foam pucks rained down from the Nassau Coliseum stands with just one finding the center-ice target.

The Chuck-a-Puck contest looked a lot like the Blue Jackets' offensive efforts nowadays. Plenty of attempts, but few bull's-eyes.

The Jackets managed just one goal for a fourth straight game in a 2-1 shootout loss to the New York Islanders. The Jackets took 42 shots, with R.J. Umberger scoring in the third period to tie it.

Kristian Huselius, Rick Nash and Fedor Tyutin were denied by goalie Dwayne Roloson in the shootout, while Rob Schremp, the Islanders' third shooter, beat Steve Mason glove side for the winner. The Jackets fell to 2-8 in shootouts and Mason dropped to 0-6.

"Obviously, other teams are having more success at it," Nash said. "We are putting our best moves forward and it's not been good enough."

But the story continues to be an inability to score goals in regulation. The Jackets have 10 in their past eight games. It's an offense that only Crew coach Robert Warzycha could love.

"The next level for us is we have to collectively compete harder to score," Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. "If you look at the last games going on, that's the No. 1 area. The sense of collective desperation is not there."

There were a lot of positive vibes flowing from the Jackets dressing room on a night when Chris Clark and Milan Jurcina made their debuts.

The Jackets limited the Islanders to 25 shots. They have allowed just six goals in the past four games. Jurcina was strong with five hits and four blocked shots.

"I thought we played well," Nash said of a club that earned three out of a possible four points in back-to-back games. "We got lots of chances. We have made strides since Christmas break. To me, at least, it looks like a better team out there, we just have to bear down on our chances."

But as the season reached the midpoint, these facts remain:

The Jackets have lost 18 of their past 21 games and 12 straight on the road. The margin for error is getting finer by the night.

Which brings us to Mason. He surrendered just one goal and lost.

Midway through the first period, Kyle Okposo shot a puck just inside the blue line that caught the outside edge of Mason's glove and popped over his shoulder. Islanders forward Josh Bailery outraced Jackets defenseman Jan Hejda to the puck as it trickled over the line. The goal was credited to Bailey, although it appeared Hejda's stick struck the puck.

"It hit off my glove, the perimeter of the glove, and bent in and flipped over it," Mason said. "It's frustrating."

That sums up the Jackets' attempts to score. The power play, so potent for much of the season, is 0 of 16 in the past five games.

The Jackets directed plenty of shots at Roloson, but didn't generate many rebounds or quality chances around the net. Derick Brassard partially fanned on a glorious second-period setup from Kris Russell, and Huselius passed up a shot between the circles in favor of a drop pass that was stolen off Umberger's stick.

The Jackets kept working, however, and were rewarded. Nash hustled to keep the puck in the offensive zone and sent it behind the net. Umberger made a nice move to shed a defender and scored on a wrap-around at 9:47 of the third.

treed@dispatch.com