Former Bowling Green State University hockey player Rob Blake is headed for the NHL Hall of Fame.
Blake was selected Monday to be inducted in November.
The Hall of Fame class also includes centers Mike Modano and Peter Forsberg, former Detroit Red Wings
goalie Dominik Hasek, coach Pat Burns and referee Bill McCreary.
“The Bowling Green Hockey program is very proud of Rob for this fantastic honor. His accomplishments in
the NHL make this decision very fitting,” current Falcon hockey coach Chris Bergeron stated in a news
release.
At BGSU from 1987-90, the Simcoe, Ontario native recorded 104 points (39 goals, 65 assists), including 18
power play goals, a shorthanded goal and three game-winners in 131 games. His 368 penalty minutes are
tied for third-most in school history.
Blake earned second team All-CCHA honors in 1988-89, helping the Falcons into the CCHA Championships for
the eighth-consecutive season. Tied 2-2 at Michigan, Blake’s goal at 2:54 of the third overtime ended
the fourth-longest game in school history and handed the Falcons the third and deciding game of the
series.
Blake’s final season at BG was even bigger, highlighted by a record-setting weekend at Miami in late
November, 1989. His hat trick in the second game of the series tied a school record for goals in a game
by a defenseman, and his four goals and eight points on the weekend also tied or set school marks.
Blake’s 23 goals in the 1989-90 season remains the record for Falcon defensemen. The honors poured in for
Blake following that season, as he was named the CCHA’s Best Offensive Defenseman, earned first-team
all-league honors and was named to the CCHA All-Tournament team. He also added the BGSU Team MVP award
to that list. The top honor that season came when Blake was named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award,
college hockey’s top prize, along with teammate Nelson Emerson.
Drafted in the fourth round of the 1988 NHL Draft by Los Angeles, Blake played 11 seasons with the Kings,
landing a spot on the All-Rookie team in 1990-91, and making his first All-Star Game appearance in 1994.
He won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in 1998, and took hockey’s ultimate prize in 2001,
winning the Stanley Cup for Colorado alongside another former Falcon, Greg DeVries.
In 1998, Blake was selected to play for Canada in the Winter Olympics. While the Canadians failed to earn
a medal in the Games, Blake was named Best Defenseman.
Four years later, he became the fifth Falcon icer to win a medal at the Olympics, and the third to win
gold, as Team Canada took gold at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Ken Morrow and Mark Wells are the only
other BG hockey alumni to win gold, as members of Team USA’s 1980 “Miracle on Ice” squad. In December
2005, Blake was named to his third Olympic team, the most of any Falcon.