BRIEFLY KLITSCHKO OK TO FIGHT, BUT WHOM?

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services

With or without Lennox Lewis, Vitali Klitschko plans to return to the ring Dec. 6 for his first fight since being stopped on cuts by the heavyweight champion in a fight he was winning at Staples Center.

Klitschko's promoter said Friday he reached agreement with HBO to televise a Klitschko fight against a top challenger who has not yet been chosen. Peter Kohl said the fight would be in the United States, at an undetermined site.

Lewis was expected to fight Klitschko in a rematch Dec. 6 but said this month he was contemplating retirement and would not fight again this year.

``We respect Lennox's decision and might fight him in 2004. However, Vitali will proceed with his career,'' Kohl said. ``In the U.S. there is big demand for Vitali. In contrast to Lennox, he's eager to fight.''

Klitschko gave a surprisingly strong performance against Lewis on June 21, leading 58-56 on all three scorecards before the fight was stopped by the ring doctor after the sixth round because of deep cuts around his left eye.

Klitschko was the WBC's No. 1 contender at the time but dropped to No. 2 in the organization's most recent ratings, behind Hasim Rahman.

HOCKEY: Players of the East Coast Hockey League, which this year includes the Long Beach Ice Dogs, declared an offseason strike, citing a lack of progress in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.

The Professional Hockey Players' Association announced the action in a faxed statement.

ECHL commissioner Brian McKenna expects a deal will be struck, and the season will open on time Oct. 17. That night, the Ice Dogs are scheduled to open at Roanoke.

The ECHL is the largest hockey league in North America with teams now in 17 states. The Ice Dogs moved to the ECHL from the Western Hockey League.

--The NHL's cash-strapped Pittsburgh Penguins signed largely unproven goaltender Sebastien Caron to a four-year deal worth a guaranteed $3.2 million.

Caron, 23, made the NHL all-rookie team last season with a 7-14-2 record and 2.64 goals-against average in 24 appearances, even though the Penguins finished with the league's second-worst record.

The signing would seem to signal the Penguins have no plans to bring back Johan Hedberg, their primary starter since 2000-01, after this season.

Hedberg is in the final year of his contract.

BASKETBALL: Sylmar High guard Mariama Wrighster, who led the Spartans to the City Setion final last seson, has orally commited to play basketball at Cal State Fullerton.

WATER POLO: The U.S. national team defeated Greece 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the New York FINA World League Super Final, moving closer to a bid to the 2004 Olympics.

The winner of the event, which concludes Sunday, receives an automatic bid to the Games to be held in Athens.

TENNIS: Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport beat Elena Dementieva, 6-4, 6-2 in sweltering conditions to advance to the final of the Pilot Pen tournament in New Haven, Conn., against Jennifer Capriati, who was up 6-3, 3-1 against second-seeded Amelie Mauresmo until Mauresmo withdrew because of an injury to her right arm.

LUGE: Ashley Hayden captured her fifth consecutive start title, posting the best combined time in women's singles competition at the U.S. National Luge Start Championships at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Hayden, from Westborough, Mass., had start times of 1.371 seconds, 1.374 and 1.374 for a three-run total of 4.119 on USA Luge's indoor, refrigerated start ramps.

YACHTING: John Kostecki will return to the America's Cup with Oracle BMW Racing, the San Francisco-based syndicate backed by software tycoon Larry Ellison.

Kostecki, who lives in the San Francisco area, was to have been skipper of Germany's first-ever America's Cup syndicate during the 2002-03 regatta, but the effort folded because of a lack of sponsorship money.