diff --git a/libexec/rc/rc.d/mountcritlocal b/libexec/rc/rc.d/mountcritlocal
index 6dce672657f..5b80d4bfbb5 100755
--- a/libexec/rc/rc.d/mountcritlocal
+++ b/libexec/rc/rc.d/mountcritlocal
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ mountcritlocal_start()
 	esac
 
 	while read a b vfstype rest; do
-		if [ "$vfstype" = "zfs" -a "$a" != "#" ]; then
+		if [ "$vfstype" = "zfs" -a "${a#\#}" = "$a" ]; then
 			# zpool is needed for legacy ZFS
 			echo 'Importing zpools for legacy ZFS'
 			/etc/rc.d/zpool start