Technically it isn’t a must win tonight (Thursday) for the North Bay Battalion against Niagara, but it’s pretty close to one.

Battalion head coach Stan Butler, who sees his team in 9th place in the Eastern Conference with 15 games left on the schedule, is doing the math.

“It’s desperation time, but we still have a good chance. If we can beat Niagara (tonight) then the win they got against us the other night, it’s a wash.  Then we’re two points behind them with a game in hand,” he said.

The Troops are three points back of Ottawa right now for the 8th and final playoff spot.

Butler says he hopes to have forward Max Kislinger back in the lineup this weekend and Eric Allair is now practicing with the team.

Cam Dineen, Riley Bruce, Jacob Ball, Brett Hargrave and Zach Poirier won’t be playing tonight.

Poirier is under suspension while the others are injured.

Recent call-ups Alex Robert and Andy Baker are expected to play tonight.

The Troops have lost their last five games and haven’t won since they beat Sarnia two weeks ago.

Broadcast time tonight on Country 600 CKAT is 6:55.