This might have been the last IIHF game for Slovak captain Miroslav Satan. The 39-year-old winger is Slovakia’s all-time World Championship scoring leader (37-38-75), and played for all four of the country’s medal teams (2000 silver, 2002 gold, 2003 bronze, 2012 silver). A four-time Olympian, Satan was excluded from the 2014 Sochi roster.

Denmark only won two games in Minsk, an expected 4-1 win over now-relegated Italy and a nice come-from-behind 4-3 shootout victory over the Czechs. They'll finish 13th, one place lower than last year.

The Danes' inability to play consistent hockey kept them outside the top 10 for the fourth consecutive year, although maintaining their place in the top division, as they have every year since 2003, is worth something. They haven’t made the quarter-finals since 2010 (eighth place).

"Some games we played really good hockey," said Christensen. "We could have won many of our games against the big nations. But we are too inconsistent. There are a lot of games in a short period of time and you probably can't be 100 percent successful every time, but mentally, you need to be there for every game."

In this game, there were a couple of early golden opportunities. Jesper Jespen rushed in and tried to deke Laco but was foiled, and Marek Viedensky tipped one off Nielsen’s left post. With less than seven minutes left in the first, Laco twice stoned Kim Staal with his glove.

Slovakia opened the scoring at 14:41, as Tatar batted in the rebound from Juraj Valach’s right point shot.

Just 1:11 into the second period, Boedker got the 1-1 equalizer for Denmark on the power play. A centering pass bounced off a Slovak defender, and Boedker picked the puck up in the slot and zipped it past an off-kilter Laco.

Nielsen stood his ground against Peter Ceresnak with 4:19 remaining in the middle frame, as the Slovak forward got a near-breakaway while being checked by Philip Larsen. The Danish goalie also provided a great blocker save on Tatar a minute before the buzzer.

Slovakia made it 2-1 with a two-man advantage at 1:31 of the third. Miklik centered the puck from the goal line to Viedensky, whose shot was stopped, but Miklik was there to bat the loose puck home on the stick side.

Morten Green tied it up with 7:07 left on another fortunate bounce similar to Boekder's goal, swiping in a loose puck from the slot after a deflected shot.

Then things got livelier.

One minute later, Slovakia jumped back into the lead. Viedensky got good position in front of the Danish net and was wide-open for a neat feed from Miklik: all he had to do was put it into the empty net.

Tatar swooped in 24 seconds later, dragging the puck coolly into the slot before beating Laco to make it 4-2.

Denmark responded pronto. Jesper Jensen scored on a breakaway, splitting the Slovak defense at 14:25 to cut Slovakia's lead to 4-3. But despite pulling their goalie in the dying moments, the Danes couldn't send this game to overtime.

"We’re still in the [elite division]," said Danish coach Janne Karlsson. "That was our first goal, and we succeeded with it. We had a chance to take more points."

The three best players of the tournament for each team were named. For Slovakia, it was Jan Laco, Marek Daloga and Michel Miklik. For Denmark, it was Jannik Hansen, Emil Kristensen, and Patrick Bjorkstrand.

At the post-game press conference, both coaches were asked to give their picks for the gold medal. Vujtek picked Canada, Sweden, or Russia, while Karlsson endorsed Russia.

This was the fourth all-time meeting between Denmark and Slovakia in World Championship history. Slovakia won 8-0 in 2004, Denmark prevailed 6-0 in 2010, and the Slovaks triumphed 4-1 in 2011.