BUFFALO – The four-goal second period that buoyed the Sabres to Wednesday’s much-needed 8-4 come-from-behind win can be traced to, of all things, winger Alex Tuch’s penalty.

With the Sabres trailing 2-1 at the 5:48 mark and down a man, Tuch was whistled for a slashing call he found, at the time, a little weak.

Tuch, who rarely barks at officials, emphatically pleaded his case.

“Just grinding on the penalty kill, and I let my emotions kind of unleash there just working to get the puck out,” Tuch, who later apologized to the official, said following the Sabres’ first win this season. “I didn’t agree with the call. I just thought it was a battle, and his stick ended up breaking.”

The Sabres, who were killing a penalty because they lost a goalie interference challenge on Ottawa’s go-ahead goal, could’ve folded.

Instead, as many in the crowd of 13,993 howled in disgust, they fed off the energy in KeyBank Center and began burying the Senators.

Sabres center Ryan McLeod scored a short-handed goal 58 seconds after Tuch went off.

“The building came to life,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “Upset about the goal that they allowed, and then all of a sudden, you start killing one off and you get a short-handed one. It’s like the fans version of, ‘Let’s stick it to ‘em.’”

The Sabres kept sticking it to them for the final 30 minutes. Tuch scored at 10:17, putting them up for good

McLeod said the “crowd just kind of erupted” after he scored.

“Got everyone’s legs kind of going, and kind of took the game over there,” he said.

Remember, the Sabres began the night having mustered two goals all season, including zero on the power play.

Winger Jason Zucker scored power-play goals at 11:46 and 13:43, putting the Sabres up 5-2.

After the Senators scored twice in the opening 2:15 of the third period to move within one goal, Ruff used his timeout.

The Sabres responded emphatically, scoring twice in a 45-second span, with McLeod restoring the two-goal lead 17 seconds after Ruff gathered his team.

Winger Jack Quinn followed with his second goal of the night, then center Jiri Kulich’s empty-net goal closed the scoring late.

“We got to want the puck,” Ruff said of his message during the timeout. “We were doing a real good job of playing quick and having the puck. I just sensed we didn’t want to make a play with it, and I said we have a lot of time left, we’ve got to make plays, we’ve got to want the puck.

Other than Zucker, the Sabres’ other scorers began the night with zero goals.

The Sabres, of course, desperately needed a win to avoid their first 0-4-0 start in franchise history.

While they’ve been ravaged by injuries, Ruff has refused to use them as an excuse. He knows they Sabres did not deserve their first three games.

Still, getting back winger Zach Benson, who was hospitalized last week after a puck cut his face in practice, made a huge difference Wednesday. Benson skated on the first line, the top power-play unit and recorded four assists.

“That’s getting one player back,” Ruff said. “We’ll be better when we get one or two of our D back, we’ll be a better team then, too. But you still have to fight your way through tough parts of the season.

“Our fight wasn’t good enough in the first three games. I don’t care whether we’re hurt or not, we didn’t earn enough, we didn’t deserve enough and we didn’t fight enough. I thought tonight we fought for everything we got.”

The Sabres did that, in part, by playing a lot faster and refusing to flinch.

“I think we just kept playing,” Tuch said. “I think we just played with a lot more speed tonight. We were a lot more assertive, honestly. We were just trying to have fun out there.”

McLeod said the Sabres “we were a desperate group.”

“Haven’t gotten the results we’ve wanted,” he said. “We haven’t really played the game we wanted, either. And I think tonight’s kind of a staple going forward for us that we should keep building on.”

Sabres goalie Alex Lyon looked sharp making 32 saves and outdueling his counterpart, Leevi Merilainen.

Sabres winger Josh Doan registered three assists. Quinn’s first goal 8:01 into the game gave the Sabres their first lead and power-play score this season.

The goal bounced off the glass behind the net and hit Merilainen’s back.

Sabres winger Justin Danforth left the game in the second period with lower-body injury.