Sechelt’s Scott Legault helped lead the Vancouver North West Giants to their third consecutive Major Midget League Championship with a two-game sweep of the Cariboo Cougars last weekend.

The Giants won game one 4-3 and followed that up with a 6-2 win in game two. Both games were played at the Burnaby Winter Club. Scott picked up the win on Friday and continued his fantastic season as he posted a record of 13-1-4 with a sparkling 2.28 GAA in regular season play.

The Giants will now wait to see who they will play from the Alberta Midget AAA League. The championship series in that league is currently underway with the Red Deer Optimist Rebels taking on the Leduc Chrysler Oil Kings.

The B.C. Major Midget League was established in 2004 to provide elite level 15 to 17-year-old an opportunity to play within their own age group. Playing at this high level and be developed for the next level of hockey. These teams have an opportunity each year to compete for the National Midget Championship.

WHL playoffs

Madeira Park’s Joe Antilla is heading into the 2011 Western Hockey League (WHL) playoffs on a high after his most successful junior season.

Antilla finished with a career high 40 points, including 21 goals and was a plus 33 in helping to lead the Kootenay Ice to a fourth place finish in the Eastern Conference standings. The Ice will host the Moose Jaw Warriors in game one of their best-of-seven quarter-final series, which gets underway this weekend.

Antilla, a 20-year-old left winger, is in his fourth season with the Ice. He has had season point totals of three, 28 and 25 in his previous three years and has one point in 10 career playoff games with the Ice.

Seattle Big Climb 

Robert’s Creek’s Shaun Stephens-Whale broke his own stairclimb record with a seven-minute, eight-second climb up 69 floors of Seattle’s Columbia Centre last Sunday to capture the overall title for the third consecutive year at Seattle’s 25th annual Big Climb benefiting The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. 

Stephens-Whale, 21, a senior cross country runner at the University of British Columbia, reached the 73rd floor observation deck of Seattle’s tallest building 26 seconds ahead of the nearest climber. His record-breaking time was 5.35 seconds ahead of his 2009 record time and nine seconds ahead of the 7:17.35 he clocked to win the event in 2010. 

“This sport is all mind-games,” he said. “Once you hit that level where your legs are completely lactic, all you can do is maintain the quickest pace possible. You’re going all out at that point. The last few floors were the hardest. I was trying to survive —everything hurt. By the time I swiped my chip, all functions stopped. It was definitely a position that I had never experienced before. I had never pushed my body that far.”