diff --git a/examples/nlp/language_modeling/megatron_lm_ckpt_to_nemo.py b/examples/nlp/language_modeling/megatron_lm_ckpt_to_nemo.py
index 2f57fabf6f24..cade1d0c235e 100644
--- a/examples/nlp/language_modeling/megatron_lm_ckpt_to_nemo.py
+++ b/examples/nlp/language_modeling/megatron_lm_ckpt_to_nemo.py
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 
 import torch
 from apex.transformer import parallel_state
+from pytorch_lightning.core.saving import _load_state as ptl_load_state
 from pytorch_lightning.core.saving import load_hparams_from_tags_csv, load_hparams_from_yaml
 from pytorch_lightning.trainer.trainer import Trainer
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.cloud_io import load as pl_load
@@ -224,10 +225,10 @@ def add_optimizer_state(lm_checkpoint, new_checkpoint, megatron_amp_o2=True):
 def load_model(cls, checkpoint, strict, **kwargs):
     try:
         if 'cfg' in kwargs:
-            model = cls._load_model_state(checkpoint, strict=strict, **kwargs)
+            model = ptl_load_state(cls, checkpoint, strict=strict, **kwargs)
         else:
-            model = cls._load_model_state(
-                checkpoint, strict=strict, cfg=checkpoint[cls.CHECKPOINT_HYPER_PARAMS_KEY].cfg, **kwargs
+            model = ptl_load_state(
+                cls, checkpoint, strict=strict, cfg=checkpoint[cls.CHECKPOINT_HYPER_PARAMS_KEY].cfg, **kwargs
             )
             # register the artifacts
             cfg = checkpoint[cls.CHECKPOINT_HYPER_PARAMS_KEY].cfg