diff --git a/emogrifier.module b/emogrifier.module
index 4b8d47a..7ba40d2 100644
--- a/emogrifier.module
+++ b/emogrifier.module
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ function _emogrifier_process($text, $filter, $format, $langcode, $cache, $cache_
   );
   // Replace or remove other tags.
   $text = preg_replace_callback(
-    '#\s*(<(/?))([!\[[:alnum:]\]]{2,12})([^>]*>)#s', '_emogrifier_replace_tag', $text
+    '#(<(/?))([!\[[:alnum:]\]]{2,12})([^>]*>)#s', '_emogrifier_replace_tag', $text
   );
   // Strip unwanted container tags replaced by comments.
   $text = preg_replace('#\s*<!--.*?-->\s*#si', '', $text);