La Crescent-Hokah star focused on winning, with Minnesota's career goals record well within reach
Dec. 29—ROCHESTER — Wyatt Farrell knows the numbers, but he doesn't do the math.
He leaves the addition and subtraction, the averages and the projections, to people outside of the La Crescent-Hokah boys hockey program, people who have the time to think about the individual accomplishments Farrell could achieve this winter.
Farrell doesn't have time to think about those things.
He's too busy thinking about — perhaps consumed by — the idea of being part of the best boys hockey team ever from La Crescent. He wants to lead the Lancers to 20 or more wins. He wants to lead them into the Rochester Recreation Center on Saturday, Feb. 24, for a Section 1, Class 1A semifinal game, then possibly again a few days later for the section championship game — a place no Lancers hockey team has gone before.
But those are goals Farrell knows can't be achieved without building toward them, without staying in the moment. And they certainly won't be achieved if he directs his attention solely toward a prestigious record that is within his reach: Ben Hanowski's 196 goals, the most ever scored in a high school career by a boys hockey player in Minnesota.
"If we keep playing well and we keep winning and keep scoring goals, then if the record comes, it comes," Farrell said, "but if it doesn't, well, I'd rather hit the program record for 20 wins. Everybody's pretty excited in La Crescent. There's a lot of hype around this team and we just gotta keep going."
Going into Friday's 5:45 p.m. Kiwanis Festival Blue Division game against Rochester Lourdes at Graham Arena IV, Farrell has 168 career goals. Hanowski finished his stellar career at Little Falls High School in 2009 with 196 goals.
That leaves Farrell 28 goals from tying and 29 from passing Hanowski.
It won't be easy for Farrell to reach that number, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. Consider this: Farrell scored a single-season career-high 52 goals last year as a junior. In order to match that number, he'd need to score 28 more the rest of this season — the exact number needed to tie Hanowski's mark.
The Lancers (11-1-0) have at least 14 games remaining — 13 in the regular season and at least one in the section playoffs. Farrell would need to average 2.0 goals per game over a 14-game span to tie Hanowski. Again, not out of the realm of possibility: He has averaged exactly 2.0 goals per game so far this season.
"If he stays consistent here and keeps doing what he's doing, it's well within reach for him," said Lancers head coach and former La Crescent star Eriah Hayes, whose program marks of 135 goals and 232 points have been bested by Farrell, who has 168 goals and 237 career points. "Wyatt is going to play the same way every night. We've stressed to him that he just has to play the same game and he's been doing that."
Farrell's strong start to this season is in part due to a good fall in the Upper Midwest High School Elite League, when he recorded eight goals and 11 points in 16 games. His play against some of the best high school upperclassmen in the state has drawn attention from scouts and coaches in the top junior hockey leagues in the country, the Tier II North American Hockey League and the Tier I United States Hockey League, as well as the eyes of some Division I college coaches.
Farrell has brushed that off as much as possible, though, and has played his game to near perfection this season. He leads the state with 24 goals (tied with Dodge County's Gryffon Funke) and 45 points (six ahead of second-place Noah Gillette, Farrell's teammate and linemate). Gillette — who transferred to La Crescent-Hokah when his family made the short move across the Mississippi River from Onalaska, Wis., this past summer — has been a huge boost to Farrell's game this season; the senior linemates play fast and feed off one another.
"It's really fun to play with him, moving the puck quickly to each other," said Gillette, who has 22 goals and 17 assists. "There's a lot of chemistry between us and we've played together, known each other for a while, so it's been a lot of fun."
With the gaudy numbers Farrell has put up, comes added attention — not just from media and fans, but from opposing teams. Farrell often has two defenders keeping eyes on him at all times, but he has used that to better himself as a player. He has become adept at not only finding open space without the puck, but creating it for himself.
"He's gotten better at moving pucks and then working to get it back," said Hayes, who played Division I college hockey at Minnesota State University, Mankato, before a four-year professional career that included 19 games with the NHL's San Jose Sharks. "Before, not that he didn't have good players to play with, but he would hold onto the puck a little too much at times.
"Having Noah there has opened up a whole other level of options for him, and he's really figured that out."
A look at Wyatt Farrell's high school career at La Crescent-Hokah:
YEAR GAMES GOALS ASSISTS POINTS
* 2023-24 12 24 21 45
2022-23 26 52 20 72
2021-22 26 49 13 62
2020-21 20 22 5 27
2019-20 21 21 10 31
TOTALS 105 168 69 237
* — stats are through games of Dec. 28, 2023
