Kirill Marchenko scored and had an assist, Mason Marchment had two assists, and Jet Greaves made 26 saves for the Blue Jackets (38-25-12), who have lost four in a row (0-3-1).
Carolina was 3-for-5 on the power play while the Blue Jackets were 0-for-3.
“Clearly penalty killing is an issue and we’ve got to clean that up. It’s cost us the last couple games, but 5-on-5 we’re thrilled with the way we’re playing,” Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness said. “Their goalie made some big saves at the right time, but again the effort is there, guys are putting it all out and that’s all we ask. We’ll live and die with being aggressive, we’ll live and die with that effort, and it didn’t go our way tonight.”
The Blue Jackets remain in the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of the Detroit Red Wings, Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers. Each has played one fewer game than Columbus, which is one point behind the Islanders for third in the Metropolitan Division with a game in hand.
Gostisbehere made it 1-0 at 13:29 of the first period on the power play. Ehlers slid the puck across and Gostisbehere went down to his left knee to score from the right circle.
The Hurricanes have at least one power-play goal in seven consecutive games.
“I think the attacking mindset that we’ve had lately, especially tonight, is getting some shots and creating rebounds, great stuff off the rebounds,” Ehlers said. “That was key for us tonight.”