It's not very often in hockey that you can say Team Finland can help their rivals, Team Sweden, but that can occur later on Saturday if the Finns go beyond regulation against Italy.

The Swedes, along with Toronto Maple Leafs' William Nylander and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, defeated Team Slovakia 5-3 in the early afternoon on Saturday in Milan, Italy.

Sweden got on the board first with a goal from Joel Eriksson Ek of the Minnesota Wild seven minutes into the game. Slovakia countered with a goal of their own nearly two minutes later, courtesy of Juraj Slafkovsky of the Montreal Canadiens.

In the middle frame, Adrian Kempe of the Los Angeles Kings scored to put Sweden up by a goal once again. However, as they did in the first period, Slovakia returned the punch, with Martin Gernat of the KHL's Lokomotiv Yaroslavl scoring a few minutes later.

Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson put Sweden up 3-2 before the second period ended, making things interesting. Because of Pettersson's goal, Sweden's quest to take control of Group B came into sight.

Sweden scored two more goals in the third period, courtesy of Pettersson, again, and Detroit Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond, putting them up 5-2. If the game had ended like that, Sweden would've had the upper hand in goal differential, giving them the top spot in Group B.

(And Sweden was pushing, too. They finished the third period outshooting the Slovaks 22-7.)

However, after a Raymond slashing call with less than three minutes left in the game, Slovakia's Dalibor Dvorsky beat Jacob Markström of the New Jersey Devils, tying Sweden at the top of their group with a plus-two goal differential.

Neither of the Maple Leafs' players had much effect on the game.

Nylander finished with six shots, but was a minus-one in 18:18 of ice time. Ekman-Larsson, who played just over seven minutes in the second game of the tournament, finished the game against Slovakia with 13:41 of ice time.

According to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, if Finland beats Italy in regulation, Slovakia will finish in first spot. That's because there'd be a three-way tie among Sweden, Finland, and the Slovaks. Slovakia has the best goal differential between the three teams (in the games that they've played against Sweden and Finland), meaning they'd finish first.

Finland, which is even, would be second. Sweden's minus-one differential puts them third in the group.

However, if Finland doesn't win in regulation, Sweden will finish in first spot, ahead of both the Finns and Slovaks.

Either scenario is a fascinating finish to group action at the Winter Olympics.