diff --git a/src/share/vm/gc_implementation/g1/heapRegionSeq.cpp b/src/share/vm/gc_implementation/g1/heapRegionSeq.cpp
index 4e89c8cf979fc3746414c0c07b760e828856e2d8..79a40355adfccb515738e62489be787b69007881 100644
--- a/src/share/vm/gc_implementation/g1/heapRegionSeq.cpp
+++ b/src/share/vm/gc_implementation/g1/heapRegionSeq.cpp
@@ -302,9 +302,9 @@ MemRegion HeapRegionSeq::shrink_by(size_t shrink_bytes,
     if (cur->isHumongous()) {
       return MemRegion(last_start, end);
     }
-    cur->reset_zero_fill();
     assert(cur == _regions.top(), "Should be top");
     if (!cur->is_empty()) break;
+    cur->reset_zero_fill();
     shrink_bytes -= cur->capacity();
     num_regions_deleted++;
     _regions.pop();