A shootout win over Canada last night had not only ended their opponents' unbeaten run at the tournament, but seen Finland close to within three points of the North Americans.
A win inside 60 minutes for themselves and for Sweden would therefore see Finland take the runner-up spot on head-to-head record.
And the Leijonat made the ideal start inside six minutes, when the puck was played back to Vili Saarijarvi just inside the blue line, and his shot-pass into the danger area was deflected into the net expertly by Patrik Puistola, fresh from his equaliser against Canada yesterday.
Slovakia, who cannot reach the Quarter-finals but are also safe from relegation, were out to spoil the Finnish party and thought they had equalised less than a minute later when Robert Lantosi drifted across goal and fired past Emil Larmi.
However, after a challenge from Finnish coach Antti Pennanen, the officials declared Matus Sukel had interfered with Larmi as the shot came in and the goal was disallowed. 1-0 was how it stayed until the end of the first period, despite Slovakia leading the shots-on-goal count.
However, in the second period it was Finland he showed the greater attacking endeavour, though it took until the final two minutes for it to count.
Finland patiently worked the puck round the Slovakian zone before Jan-Mikael Jarvinen quickened the pace on the left side and found Waltteri Merala in the middle, who drilled his strike into the top corner.
Slovakia finally found a way back into the game with a little over five minutes to play - on a powerplay, Pavol Regenda found Lantosi in space. He looked into the centre for passing options, only to catch Larmi off guard and pick out the smallest of gaps between the goaltender and the pipes.
The Slovaks threw everything at Finland late on, but Larmi denied them a late comeback and Finland held on and moved into second for the time being, at least, with 16 points from seven matches.
Slovakia exit the competition with a sixth-placed finish in Group A, with two wins, an overtime loss and four wins in regulation time.
Today's early faceoff in Group A was a showdown for fourth place and the final Playoff spot, yet the match was much more one-sided than anticipated, as Austria beat Latvia 6-1.
Austria were 3-0 up before Eduards Tralmaks pulled a goal back for Latvia eight minutes into the second period, but a second of the match each for Dominic Zwerger and Vinzenz Rohrer were two of the three Austria grabbed in the third period to cruise to victory.
It's a first appearance in the last eight for Austria in over 20 years, while Latvia finish the group stage in fifth place and on nine points for the second year in a row.