NASHVILLE—Jonathan Toews scored a power-play goal to cap a wild first period, and the Blackhawks held on for a 5-3 victory Monday night against Nashville and advanced to the Western Conference semifinals for the second successive year.The Blackhawks won the final three games of the series, setting up a second-round matchup with the Vancouver Canucks for the second successive season. The Hawks have’nt lost a Game 6 with the chance to eliminate an opponent since 1995.Nashville has been eliminated in all five of its postseason appearances on home ice.The Predators, who blew a lead with 13.6 seconds left in regulation in Game 5 on Saturday, scored three more goals than they had in two previous Game 6 losses. But they couldn’t beat Antti Niemi in the final two periods even when getting three power plays within 4:29 of the third.The Hawks led 4-3 going into the third, where Nashville outshot the Blackhawks 15-3. The rookie goalie Niemi stopped Martin Erat in front with 85 seconds left. Nashville pulled goalie Pekka Rinne with 1:15 remaining, but John Madden scored an empty netter with 7.8 seconds left to seal the victory.Toews also had an assist. Duncan Keith and Patrick Sharp each had a goal and an assist, and Patrick Kane had a goal. Marian Hossa added two assists in a game in which Nashville wanted him to miss. The Predators thought Hossa deserved to be suspended for a boarding penalty against defenseman Dan Hamhuis in the Blackhawks’ 5-4 overtime victory Saturday in Chicago.So nearly every time Hossa stepped onto the ice, the sellout crowd booed loudly.Jason Arnott scored two goals, his only tallies of the series, and Shea Weber had a goal for Nashville.The Predators got top goal scorer Patric Hornqvist back for the first time since he played 13 minutes in the Predators’ 4-1 victory to open this series. He provided an immediate boost to Nashville’s anemic power play unit, assisting on Arnott’s goal on the Predators’ second advantage of the game.The Blackhawks led 4-3 after an emotional first period in which the Blackhawks went ahead 3-1 on a flukey goal. Brent Seabrook tried to dump the puck off a faceoff in front of the Nashville bench only to see it bounce off Kane’s right skate and past Rinne into the wide-open net with 12:03 gone.Nashville answered by ending its power-play drought. Having gone 22 power plays without scoring, Arnott tipped in a puck from the right edge of the crease, catching Niemi leaning the other way at 15:44. It was the Predators’ only goal with the man advantage this series.The Predators tied it at 3 off a slap shot from Hamhuis at 19:06, a goal that re-energized the crowd. But Jerred Smithson took a hooking penalty, and Toews scored on the rebound of Keith’s shot seven seconds later to put the Hawks back ahead at 19:29.It stayed 4-3 through the second period as Nashville killed 10 minutes of penalties, the last when Hornqvist took a double minor for high-sticking defenseman Brent Sopel in the face as he fell. The penalty-killing wore the Predators out, and the Blackhawks outshot them 15-4 in the period.

NOTES—The Blackhawks have won five straight and eight of nine in the playoffs with the chance to eliminate a team. … The Blackhawks went 4 for 23 with the man advantage in this series. … The Predators had been shut out 2-0 in 2004 and 3-0 in 2008 in their previous Game 6s — both against Detroit.