He escrito un código simple y lo guardo en el archivo try.js.

var http = require('http');
var makeRequest = function(message) {
  var options = {
    host: 'localhost', port: 8080, path: '/', method: 'POST'
  }
  var request = http.request(options, function(response){
    response.on('data', function(data){
      console.log(data);
    });
  });

  request.write(message);
  request.end();
}
makeRequest("Here's looking at you, kid.");

Cuando lo ejecuto a través del terminal me da un error.

throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event,
Error: connect ECONNREFUSED
at errnoException (net.js:884:11)
at Object.afterConnect [as oncomplete] (net.js:875:19)error' event