diff --git a/lib/liquid/variable.rb b/lib/liquid/variable.rb
index 6a35122a..15c60cb7 100644
--- a/lib/liquid/variable.rb
+++ b/lib/liquid/variable.rb
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ module Liquid
   #   {{ user | link }}
   #
   class Variable
-    FilterParser = /(?:#{FilterSeparator}|(?:\s*(?:#{QuotedFragment}|#{ArgumentSeparator})\s*)+)/o
+    FilterParser = /(?:\s+|#{QuotedFragment}|#{ArgumentSeparator})+/o
     EasyParse = /\A *(\w+(?:\.\w+)*) *\z/
     attr_accessor :filters, :name, :warnings
 
@@ -41,8 +41,8 @@ module Liquid
         if Regexp.last_match(2) =~ /#{FilterSeparator}\s*(.*)/om
           filters = Regexp.last_match(1).scan(FilterParser)
           filters.each do |f|
-            if f =~ /\s*(\w+)/
-              filtername = Regexp.last_match(1)
+            if f =~ /\w+/
+              filtername = Regexp.last_match(0)
               filterargs = f.scan(/(?:#{FilterArgumentSeparator}|#{ArgumentSeparator})\s*((?:\w+\s*\:\s*)?#{QuotedFragment})/o).flatten
               @filters << [filtername, filterargs]
             end