Coming in 2nd would be almost as good as winning for Cruz. NH is th Coming in third would be right on par and he lives to fight another day. Coming in fourth would sting, but he could pick up the pieces and move on without much trouble. Coming in fifth would be embarrassing and raise the stakes of South Carolina so that he would almost need a win or very close second to stay credible as a candidate. Coming in 6th would put him back to square one and almost cancel out his Iowa win.
3rd would be as good as a win for Cruz.
The question for me is can Trump win by a wide enough margin? A close win for Trump in liberal NH doesn’t bode well for him in southern states.