DULY NOTED

Friday, April 27, 2007 | 7:20 a.m.

FAIR HEATHER FANS

Note to Pacman Jones, Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, Kurt Busch, half of the Cincinnati Bengals' roster and anybody else who needs to have his image rehabilitated:

Do not hire some fancy-schmancy public relations firm. Do not send flowers. Do not say you're sorry. Do not pass "Go" and distribute $200.

Just shine your boogie shoes, brush up on the fox trot and get yourself on "Dancing With the Stars" ASAP.

Hey, it worked for Heather Mills, didn't it?

Before going on ABC's prime-time alternative to Olympic ballroom dancing, the soon-to-be ex-wife of still-cuddly Paul McCartney was more despised than John Rocker. When her plan to take Sgt. Pepper's lonely heart to the cleaners during a messy divorce became public, the public voted her off the island.

(Oops, wrong reality show.)

But Mills, who has a prosthetic leg, showed so much moxie and inspired so many viewers during her "Dancing" run that ended Tuesday that a forgiving public is ready to award her half of Ringo's fortune, too.

That is, if he has one.

SEATS AND DESIST

I went to a playoff hockey game Wednesday night - and a Gladiators game broke out.

At least, that's what it looked like, judging from the number of empty seats at the Orleans Arena as the Wranglers and Idaho Potatoheads - er, Steelheads - continued their second-round ECHL playoff series.

The building was just a tad over half-filled as a crowd of 4,076 - about 1,000 shy of the Wranglers' average crowd this season - bothered showing up to watch Las Vegas lose, 4-2.

Wait a minute. Did I just use "Las Vegas" and "lose" in the same sentence of a hockey story?

Actually, it was the Wranglers' second consecutive defeat after they had won 18 consecutive games, equaling the all-time pro hockey record for longest winning streak. But their fans apparently weren't interested in rewarding the Wranglers for a job well done by attending a game on a school night - playoffs or no playoffs.

Considering the team skated with all the enthusiasm of Dorothy Hamill doing school figures, perhaps the fans were clairvoyant.

"It didn't help that we laid an egg," said team spokesman Josh Fisher, who added that the lateness in announcing the second-round playoff schedule was probably a bigger factor in fans staying home to watch "American Idol" on TV instead of live hockey.

THUNDER DOWN UNDER

Stop me if you've heard this one before. A Las Vegas minor league hockey team tears it up during the regular season and looks more unbeatable than the Charlestown Chiefs when it suddenly stubs its skate on the blue line during the early rounds of the playoffs.

Las Vegas Wranglers, meet the old Las Vegas Thunder.

During their six-year existence from 1993-99, the Thunder arguably was the best team in the International Hockey League, at least during the regular season.

The Thunder won two division titles and two regular-season points titles but when it came to the postseason, it s cup never runneth over. The Thunder never won the Turner Cup playoffs and only made it as far as the conference finals once.

AROUND THE HORN

4

Number of UNLV women (Elena Gantcheva 2006-07, Marianne Vallin 1994, '96, '97, Katarina Malec 2000, Jolene Watanabe 1990) who have been named MVP of their conference in tennis.

122

Points earned by the Las Vegas Thunder during the 1995-96 IHL regular season.

106

Points earned by the Las Vegas Wranglers during the 2006-07 ECHL regular season.

"I'm Heather Mills, I've got an artificial leg and there's a good chance it could fall off."

Former model and soon-to-be-ex wife of Paul McCartney, before going on "Dancing With the Stars."

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