They needed that. Man, they needed that.

The University of New Hampshire hockey team put together only its second four-point weekend of the season and first since the very beginning of November to climb back into the Hockey East playoff picture.

The Wildcats were on the outside looking in, No. 9 in the standings for an eight-team event, when the weekend began.

Thanks in large part to goaltender Casey DeSmith, they jumped into a tie for sixth place with a pair of wins over Providence College — 3-1 on Friday night in Durham and 3-2 in overtime on Saturday in Providence — and improved their overall record to 11-14-2 and their mark in Hockey East to 8-11-1.

There’s still much work to be done to solidify a playoff spot before the league tournament begins on March 9.

“I told the guys this morning, ‘I told you this weekend was big, now next weekend’s even bigger,’” UNH coach Dick Umile said on Sunday afternoon. “It’s all about what’s ahead of us. We can control where we end up.”

The Hockey East standings have split into two distinct tiers.

Boston University, Boston College, UMass-Lowell, Maine and Merrimack in that order are, at the moment, the five teams competing for the top four spots and the home ice advantage for the quarterfinal round.

Four points separate Merrimack from BU.

UNH is in the next group of four teams battling to get the other three playoff spots.

The Wildcats and Providence each have 17 points, Northeastern has 16 and Massachusetts has 14. Massachusetts, though, has played two fewer games than UNH and Northeastern, who have played 20. Providence has played 19.

The Wildcats have seven games remaining, five of which are against teams below them in the standings.

They play Northeastern at home on Friday night and are at Merrimack on Saturday. UNH has split a pair of games with each team so far.

After next weekend, the Wildcats have two games at home against Vermont, two at Massachusetts and then close out the regular season with a single game at Maine on March 3.

DeSmith, a freshman from Rochester, stopped 37 of 38 shots on Friday night and 34 of 36 on Saturday and improved his save percentage to .929 and his goals against average to 2.17.

“He’s good,” Umile said. “We were fortunate to get him. I’m going to do the Rotary lunch tomorrow in Rochester. That will be a lot of fun.”

Another highlight of the weekend was getting an overtime win. Three of UNH’s league games since the Jan. 7 game against Maine at Fenway Park had gone to overtime and the Wildcats had lost them all. Each of the last two Saturdays had resulted in overtime losses at home, first to Merrimack and then to Boston College.

Senior Kevin McCarey’s goal 2:07 into OT on Saturday, assisted by Connor Hardowa and Austin Block, stopped that trend.

“This Saturday night felt a lot better,” Umile said.

Sunday, too.

Umile planned to relax, kick back, and watch a little football.

“It’s a good Sunday when you win on Saturday night,” he said.

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Following up on its 52-51 win over Hartford on Wednesday, the men’s basketball team will again try to win consecutive games for the first time this season when it faces Stony Brook at home tonight at 7 o’clock on ESPN3.

Stony Brook leads America East with a 10-1 record, is 15-7 overall and beat UNH, 61-52, at Stony Brook on Jan. 16.

UNH is 8-13 and 3-7.

It’s a big week ahead for the Wildcats. They have Albany, 15-10 and 7-4, at home on Thursday and are at UMBC on Sunday.

Senior Alvin Abreu leads UNH and is ninth in the league at 13.3 points a game. Senior Brian Benson leads the league with 8.6 rebounds a game and sophomore Patrick Konan is 10th at 56.

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The UNH women, 12-10 overall and 5-5 in America East, are at Albany on Wednesday night and play Vermont at home on Saturday at 1.

Albany is 15-9 and 9-2 and beat UNH, 60-44, in Durham on Jan. 11.

UNH senior Denise Beliveau is fourth in the league in both scoring (13.9 per game) and rebounding (8.5) Kelsey Hogan, a sophomore out of Nashua, has made 30 of her 67 three-point shot attempts to lead America East with a 44.8 shooting percentage. She averages 10.4 points a game.

Beliveau is third in the league with an 86.4 free throw shooting percentage and Hogan is in fifth at 77.8.

Morgan Frame, a junior transfer from St. Anselm College, averages 16.4 points and 6.9 rebounds a game but has not yet played enough games to qualify to be among the league leaders.

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The men's and women’s track teams host Vermont for a meet on Saturday at noon.

The following week, the Wildcats are in Boston at the Track and Tennis Center for the America East championships.

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Allen Lessels covers UNH athletics for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. He may be reached at alessels@unionleader.com.