diff --git a/doio.c b/doio.c
index 24bc91d937dd..b849f0626ec6 100644
--- a/doio.c
+++ b/doio.c
@@ -2215,14 +2215,13 @@ Perl_do_print(pTHX_ SV *sv, PerlIO *fp)
         STRLEN len;
         /* Do this first to trigger any overloading.  */
         const char *tmps = SvPV_const(sv, len);
-        U8 *tmpbuf = NULL;
         bool happy = TRUE;
 
         if (PerlIO_isutf8(fp)) { /* If the stream is utf8 ... */
             if (!SvUTF8(sv)) {	/* Convert to utf8 if necessary */
                 /* We don't modify the original scalar.  */
-                tmpbuf = bytes_to_utf8((const U8*) tmps, &len);
-                tmps = (char *) tmpbuf;
+                tmps = (char *) bytes_to_utf8((const U8*) tmps, &len);
+                SAVEFREEPV(tmps);
             }
             else if (ckWARN4_d(WARN_UTF8, WARN_SURROGATE, WARN_NON_UNICODE, WARN_NONCHAR)) {
                 (void) check_utf8_print((const U8*) tmps, len);
@@ -2230,20 +2229,9 @@ Perl_do_print(pTHX_ SV *sv, PerlIO *fp)
         } /* else stream isn't utf8 */
         else if (DO_UTF8(sv)) { /* But if is utf8 internally, attempt to
                                    convert to bytes */
-            STRLEN tmplen = len;
-            bool utf8 = TRUE;
-            U8 * const result = bytes_from_utf8((const U8*) tmps, &tmplen, &utf8);
-            if (!utf8) {
-
-                /* Here, succeeded in downgrading from utf8.  Set up to below
-                 * output the converted value */
-                tmpbuf = result;
-                tmps = (char *) tmpbuf;
-                len = tmplen;
-            }
-            else {  /* Non-utf8 output stream, but string only representable in
-                       utf8 */
-                assert((char *)result == tmps);
+            if (! utf8_to_bytes_temp_pv((const U8**) &tmps, &len)) {
+                /* Non-utf8 output stream, but string only representable in
+                   utf8 */
                 Perl_ck_warner_d(aTHX_ packWARN(WARN_UTF8),
                                  "Wide character in %s",
                                    PL_op ? OP_DESC(PL_op) : "print"
@@ -2261,7 +2249,6 @@ Perl_do_print(pTHX_ SV *sv, PerlIO *fp)
          * io the write failure can be delayed until the flush/close. --jhi */
         if (len && (PerlIO_write(fp,tmps,len) == 0))
             happy = FALSE;
-        Safefree(tmpbuf);
         return happy ? !PerlIO_error(fp) : FALSE;
     }
 }