BRAMPTON, Ont. - Familiar and fresh faces will be in the post-Christmas lineup when the Brampton Battalion gets back to Ontario Hockey League action at 7:30 p.m. Thursday against the host Barrie Colts, while two known names will be absent.

Ian Watters and Matt MacLeod are set to return from injuries, and Michael Santini has been released to reduce the Battalion's overage contingent to the maximum of three, a limit that must be met before the Jan. 10 trade deadline.

Brandon Robinson has left to play in the World Under-17 Challenge at Windsor, while fellow underager Mitch Amante is to make his OHL debut.

Right winger Santini scored four goals and earned five assists for nine points in 16 games with the Battalion this season, in which he missed 12 games with a high-ankle sprain suffered Oct. 10 and six games with a separated shoulder incurred Nov. 20. The four goals came in the Troops' most recent two games, the overtime winner Dec. 16 in a 2-1 road verdict over the Ottawa 67's and three goals in a 6-1 home-ice win Dec. 18 over the Sarnia Sting.

Santini's release means that the Battalion overage group consists of left wingers Watters, Mitchell Porowski and Brett Mackie. Porowski was signed Sept. 1 as a free agent after playing the last three seasons with the Gatineau Olympiques of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, while Mackie was acquired in an Oct. 4 trade with the Belleville Bulls.

Santini, originally taken by Sarnia in the fifth round of the 2007 OHL Priority Selection, was acquired in January, 2010, off the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors' list. In two-plus seasons with the Troops, he scored 23 goals and added 25 assists for 48 points in 80 games.

Stan Butler, Battalion director of hockey operations and head coach, said he arranged a spot for Santini with the QMJHL's Drummondville Voltigeurs, but it wasn't known whether he would take advantage of that opportunity or play junior A in Ontario.

Right winger Amante, who has signed an education contract with the Battalion, is scheduled to play at Barrie and against visiting Mississauga on Saturday before returning to the junior B Leamington Flyers. Amante was a ninth-round pick in the 2011 OHL Priority Selection from the Windsor Jr. Spitfires minor midgets.

At five-foot-nine and 163 pounds, he has seven goals and 13 assists for 20 points in 25 games with Leamington.

Watters has been sidelined since suffering three severed tendons in his right wrist in a 4-3 win via shootout Sept. 30 at Sarnia. He has four goals in the four games he has played.

Right winger MacLeod incurred a concussion in a 7-2 road loss Nov. 18 to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyounds. MacLeod has scored one goal and added six assists for seven points in 22 games.

Left winger Robinson, to this point the only underager to have played with the Troops this season, is with the Ontario team in the under-17 tournament, which features five regional Canadian entries and five age-group national teams. Robinson scored the winning goal in a 5-2 exhibition victory Wednesday night over the Czech Republic before Ontario opens the tourney Thursday against Germany.

The Battalion, which has ridden a season-high six-game winning streak to a won-lost-tied record of 20-10-4 for 44 points, is first in the Central Division. The Troops have defeated the Colts in two of three games this season, including a 4-1 decision Dec. 10 at Barrie in the most recent meeting.

The game at Barrie can be seen live in Brampton on Rogers Cable 10 and in Bolton, Caledon and Orangeville on Rogers Cable 63.