The disclosed embodiments provide a system that filters duplicate requests from an L1 cache for a cache line. During operation, the system receives at an L2 cache a first request and a second request for the same cache line, and stores identifying information for these requests. The system then performs a cache array look-up for the first request that, in the process of creating a load fill packet for the first request, loads the cache line into a fill buffer. After sending the load fill packet for the first request to the L1 cache, the system uses the cache line data still stored in the fill buffer and stored identifying information for the second fill request to send a subsequent load fill packet for the second request to the L1 cache without performing an additional cache array look-up.