diff --git a/packages/next/src/server/stream-utils/node-web-streams-helper.ts b/packages/next/src/server/stream-utils/node-web-streams-helper.ts
index 6a44c87d50c5b..85ce6b42748d4 100644
--- a/packages/next/src/server/stream-utils/node-web-streams-helper.ts
+++ b/packages/next/src/server/stream-utils/node-web-streams-helper.ts
@@ -413,16 +413,16 @@ function createStripDocumentClosingTagsTransform(): TransformStream<
         isEquivalentUint8Arrays(chunk, ENCODED_TAGS.CLOSED.BODY) ||
         isEquivalentUint8Arrays(chunk, ENCODED_TAGS.CLOSED.HTML)
       ) {
-        // the entire chunk is the closing tags.
+        // the entire chunk is the closing tags; return without enqueueing anything.
         return
-      } else {
-        // We assume these tags will go at together at the end of the document and that
-        // they won't appear anywhere else in the document. This is not really a safe assumption
-        // but until we revamp our streaming infra this is a performant way to string the tags
-        chunk = removeFromUint8Array(chunk, ENCODED_TAGS.CLOSED.BODY)
-        chunk = removeFromUint8Array(chunk, ENCODED_TAGS.CLOSED.HTML)
       }
 
+      // We assume these tags will go at together at the end of the document and that
+      // they won't appear anywhere else in the document. This is not really a safe assumption
+      // but until we revamp our streaming infra this is a performant way to string the tags
+      chunk = removeFromUint8Array(chunk, ENCODED_TAGS.CLOSED.BODY)
+      chunk = removeFromUint8Array(chunk, ENCODED_TAGS.CLOSED.HTML)
+
       controller.enqueue(chunk)
     },
   })