VANCOUVER - Roberto Luongo will be back in goal Sunday but the Vancouver Canucks plan no other changes when they face the St. Louis Blues to complete a four-game homestand.

Coach Alain Vigneault ran a full practice Saturday at Rogers Arena, with the emphasis on penalty killing and power play, and later said he wasn't terribly upset with Friday's 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars. The Canucks squandered a 3-2 third-period lead in the game, the third time this season they have lost when leading after 40 minutes. The Blues and Canucks will face off at 6:05 Sunday.

"Sometimes those bounces are just going to happen in a game and it's just not going to be there for you," said Vigneault, whose skaters had won six straight before the Friday collapse. "As far as the way our guys prepared and played and skated and hit, I mean, they were pretty good last night."

The Canuck power play went 0-for-3 against the Stars and is on a 4-for-39 swoon that has seen it tumble to 20th in the league at 16.4 per cent. The Blues, by contrast, have the NHL's top power play at 35.8 per cent.

Based on Saturday's practice, Vigneault doesn't intend to put hard-shooting defenceman Jason Garrison on either of his power-play units. Daniel Sedin and Alex Edler were manning the points on the first unit while Dan Hamhuis and Kevin Bieksa were with the second group.

"We've made quite a few changes on our power play since the beginning of the season," Vigneault explained. "I think we've had six different changes and we tried Jason on that first unit. With Ryan (Kesler) coming back, I think we might stick with that for a little bit here and see how all that works out. The second unit seems to be doing all right and they seem to be getting more comfortable. So I think we might stick with that for a little while."

The first unit features Henrik Sedin, Alex Burrows and Kesler up front. The forwards on the second group are Zack Kassian, Mason Raymond and Jordan Schroeder.

Meanwhile, Vigneault wouldn't bite when asked if Luongo's start was a scheduled one, or whether it was based on Cory Schneider's poor outing against the Stars. Schneider let in two stinkers and was beaten far side on the winner by Dallas defenceman Brenden Dillon.

"It's the coin," Vigneault responded. "Stick with the coin."

Sunday's start for Luongo will be his seventh and he has yet to lose in regulation (4-0-2). He currently owns the league's best goals against record at 1.45 and has arguably been the Canucks most consistent performer to date. Bobby Lou has not allowed more than two goals in any of his starts and has won four straight. He expects the Canucks to return to their tight defensive ways after they surrendered four 5-on-5 goals to the Stars.

"Usually we're a really good team defensively and we don't give up much," said Luongo. "These things happen once in a while. Obviously you can't go through a whole schedule without having games where you're not as sharp defensively as others. I think the main thing is to bounce back tomorrow."

The Canucks, 8-3-2, have feasted against Northwest Division teams while posting a 6-0-1 record. Against the other two divisions, they have won just twice and one of those was via shootout over the Chicago Blackhawks. They are 2-3-1 outside the Northwest.

"First of all, I think there might be a little disrespect for the teams in our division," Vigneault said. "It's a tough division. They're good teams. I think we've mentioned many times there are no easy games in this league. We definitely respect all the teams in our division. Our record, for a long time against the other two divisions in our conference, and the other conference, has been very good. Right now, it's a short segment of games."

epap@vancouversun.com