When Sweden led 5–2, the margin for a Swedish group victory looked large enough.
But Slovakia reduced it to 5–3 through Dalibor Dvorsky on the power play with just 39 seconds left.
Sweden leads the group - but must hope that last-placed, zero-point Italy takes points from Finland to maintain first place in the group.
Otherwise, Sweden will face a round-of-16 game.
Goalkeeper change
National coach Sam Hallam had made several changes compared to the first two matches.
Jacob Markström took his place between the posts, Filip Forsberg and Marcus Johansson came in as forwards and Oliver Ekman-Larsson as a defender. Elias Lindholm and Rasmus Andersson were replaced.
Sweden started positively and took the lead while a man down when Joel Eriksson Ek scored 1–0, but just as the Swedes returned to full strength, Slovak star Juraj Slafkovsky, one of seven NHL players on the team, scored the equalizer.
“On the heels”
"We came out a little on our heels at the beginning, while Slovakia just runs. They are tough and play smart," Oliver Ekman-Larsson told HBO Max.
Slovakia was close to a go-ahead goal in the final seconds of the first, but the tall Markström, 197 centimeters, threw out his glove and stopped the puck on the goal line.
Adrian Kempe thundered in 2–1 on the power play in the second period, but Slovakia, who had beaten both Finland and Italy, equalized again through Martin Gernat just as Tre Kronor returned to full strength after a player was sent off.
Then Elias Pettersson struck. Freed by Filip Forsberg, he scored his first national team goal since the 2019 World Cup and Sweden was in the lead again.
He wasn't finished there.
Pettersson made it 4–2 after 7:57 of the third period on Lucas Raymond's perfect pass.
“Of course it's sour”
Lucas Raymond then scored the 5–2 goal when he neatly hooked the puck in behind Slovak goalie Samuel Hlavaj.
That margin would have been enough to win the group.
Filip Forsberg was then one shot away from making it 6–2 on the power play.
Instead, Dvorsky made it 5–3 in the final minute.
"Strange feeling. Winning 5–3 but apparently you're not winning," said team captain Gabriel Landeskog.
"Of course it's disappointing that we don't win the group. But that's how it is," said goal scorer Adrian Kempe to TV4.
