NAGANO, Japan – Following this morning’s 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck northeast Japan, the Japanese Paralympic Committee has decided to postpone both tournament games scheduled for Saturday, including Canada’s game against the host Japanese that was scheduled to begin at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on Friday night.

Saturday’s games will now be played Sunday, with Sunday’s games moved to Monday. The schedule change means the tournament will now be a round robin-only tournament, with Sunday’s games taking the place of the scheduled medal games on Monday.

Nagano is located more than 900 kilometres from Sendai, the area hardest hit by the earthquake, and Friday’s decision is precautionary. The JPC expects games to resume as planned on Sunday (Saturday night in North America).

Hockey Canada sends its thoughts to those affected by the earthquake.