diff --git a/nlgeval/pycocoevalcap/meteor/meteor.py b/nlgeval/pycocoevalcap/meteor/meteor.py
index 5ed4a2f..fda124a 100755
--- a/nlgeval/pycocoevalcap/meteor/meteor.py
+++ b/nlgeval/pycocoevalcap/meteor/meteor.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import atexit
 import logging
 import os
+import re
 import subprocess
 import sys
 import threading
@@ -99,8 +100,9 @@ def method(self):
 
     def _stat(self, hypothesis_str, reference_list):
         # SCORE ||| reference 1 words ||| reference n words ||| hypothesis words
-        hypothesis_str = hypothesis_str.replace('|||', '').replace('  ', ' ')
+        hypothesis_str = hypothesis_str.replace('|||', '')
         score_line = ' ||| '.join(('SCORE', ' ||| '.join(reference_list), hypothesis_str))
+        score_line = re.sub(r'\s+', ' ', score_line)
         self.meteor_p.stdin.write(enc(score_line))
         self.meteor_p.stdin.write(enc('\n'))
         self.meteor_p.stdin.flush()