diff --git a/modules/@angular/compiler/src/html_parser.ts b/modules/@angular/compiler/src/html_parser.ts
index 092232c1e0..2240ace0b8 100644
--- a/modules/@angular/compiler/src/html_parser.ts
+++ b/modules/@angular/compiler/src/html_parser.ts
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ class TreeBuilder {
     const tagDef = getHtmlTagDefinition(el.name);
     const {parent, container} = this._getParentElementSkippingContainers();
 
-    if (tagDef.requireExtraParent(isPresent(parent) ? parent.name : null)) {
+    if (isPresent(parent) && tagDef.requireExtraParent(parent.name)) {
       var newParent = new HtmlElementAst(
           tagDef.parentToAdd, [], [], el.sourceSpan, el.startSourceSpan, el.endSourceSpan);
       this._insertBeforeContainer(parent, container, newParent);
diff --git a/modules/@angular/compiler/test/html_parser_spec.ts b/modules/@angular/compiler/test/html_parser_spec.ts
index e2ca0d6987..3e4dc1ceb8 100644
--- a/modules/@angular/compiler/test/html_parser_spec.ts
+++ b/modules/@angular/compiler/test/html_parser_spec.ts
@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@ export function main() {
         });
       });
 
-
       describe('elements', () => {
         it('should parse root level elements', () => {
           expect(humanizeDom(parser.parse('<div></div>', 'TestComp'))).toEqual([
@@ -158,6 +157,13 @@ export function main() {
           ]);
         });
 
+        // https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/5967
+        it('should not add the requiredParent to a template root element', () => {
+          expect(humanizeDom(parser.parse('<tr></tr>', 'TestComp'))).toEqual([
+            [HtmlElementAst, 'tr', 0],
+          ]);
+        });
+
         it('should support explicit mamespace', () => {
           expect(humanizeDom(parser.parse('<myns:div></myns:div>', 'TestComp'))).toEqual([
             [HtmlElementAst, ':myns:div', 0]