DURHAM — Save the sweats.

The University of New Hampshire rode a three-goal first period and the career-high 37 saves of Casey DeSmith to a 3-1 win over Providence College in front of 5,233 at the Whittemore Center on Friday night.

Tim Schaller, a junior from Merrimack, scored the Providence goal in his return to the lineup after missing six games with mononucleosis.

Earlier in the week, UNH coach Dick Umile said he was willing to give almost anything a shot in an attempt to turn around the fortunes of his team.

“Clothing-wise, I’ve tried everything,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve tried mismatches. I’ve tried everything. I’ll wear my sweatsuit out there next time. I really don’t care what it looks like.”

For the record, Umile went with a gray sports jacket over black on Friday night.

And the Wildcats, for a night at least, did turn things around.

They had lost three straight games overall, five in a row at home, and had not won a game here since Nov. 26 and a Hockey East game here since Nov. 18.

“It’s been a little while,” said sophomore defenseman Eric Knodel, who scored UNH’s first goal and assisted on the second. “But it feels good.”

UNH improved to 10-14-2 and 7-11-1 in Hockey East and jumped over Massachusetts and into eighth place in the league standings. UMass lost at Northeastern, 4-3 in overtime, on Friday night.

The Wildcats are a point ahead of UMass and a point behind seventh-place Northeastern.

They also moved within two points of the Friars and the teams play a rematch in Rhode Island tonight. UNH ran its record to 14-0-2 in its last 16 against Providence.

Providence fell to 10-13-2 and 8-9-1.

“We’ll take the two points,” Umile said. “We started out well and got a couple of power play goals and had a good first period, but in the third period we didn’t play very well. We didn’t manage it very well, especially the last 10 minutes. Casey had to make some key saves for us and get us the two points.”

The Friars outshot UNH 38-22 for the game, 14-6 in both the second and third periods.

The Wildcats broke out with the three goals in the first period, two of them on the power play.

Knodel slid down from the left point and knocked in a pass from Nick Sorkin to open the scoring just 1:30 into the game.

Freshman Grayson Downing put in the rebound of a John Henrion shot for the first power play goal and a 2-0 lead at 10:57.

Stevie Moses made it 3-0, set up by Sorkin and Kevin Goumas, with another power play goal at 14:19. It was the Hockey East-leading 19th goal for Moses and it came just 11 seconds after a penalty for roughing on Barrett Kaib.

It was the first three-goal period for the Wildcats since they beat Alabama-Huntsville here on Nov. 26 and second of the season against a Hockey East foe, to go with a home game against Massachusetts on Nov. 4.

Schaller got one back for the Friars early in the second period. He was in front of the net and got a pass from Matt Bergland from the behind the net and one-timed it past DeSmith to make it 3-1 at 4:21 of the second period.

“It was fun to get back out there, especially with the home crowd here,” Schaller said. “But it would have been nicer to get the win.”

DeSmith, a freshman from Rochester, made one of his biggest saves shortly after the Schaller goal, going into a split to deny Rob Maloney, who was in tight on him.

“He cut back the other way and I had to put my leg out there and I ended up in a split,” DeSmith said. “Thankfully, he didn’t get it over my pads.”

Now, it’s on to Providence.

“It’s another day,” Umile said. “It’s all about now. It will be important for us to start out well, that’s for sure.”