diff --git a/pkg/containerd/importer/importer.go b/pkg/containerd/importer/importer.go
index eabce9ca6..3ac38752f 100644
--- a/pkg/containerd/importer/importer.go
+++ b/pkg/containerd/importer/importer.go
@@ -32,13 +32,13 @@ import (
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/images"
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/leases"
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/log"
+	"github.com/docker/distribution/reference"
 	"github.com/opencontainers/go-digest"
 	"github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/specs-go"
 	ocispec "github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/specs-go/v1"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 
 	ctrdutil "github.com/containerd/cri/pkg/containerd/util"
-	"github.com/containerd/cri/pkg/util"
 )
 
 // This code reuses the docker import code from containerd/containerd#1602.
@@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ func Import(ctx context.Context, client *containerd.Client, reader io.Reader, op
 		}
 
 		for _, ref := range mfst.RepoTags {
-			normalized, err := util.NormalizeImageRef(ref)
+			normalized, err := reference.ParseDockerRef(ref)
 			if err != nil {
 				return refs, errors.Wrapf(err, "normalize image ref %q", ref)
 			}
diff --git a/pkg/server/helpers.go b/pkg/server/helpers.go
index b44be5a2a..228a349a4 100644
--- a/pkg/server/helpers.go
+++ b/pkg/server/helpers.go
@@ -50,7 +50,6 @@ import (
 	containerstore "github.com/containerd/cri/pkg/store/container"
 	imagestore "github.com/containerd/cri/pkg/store/image"
 	sandboxstore "github.com/containerd/cri/pkg/store/sandbox"
-	"github.com/containerd/cri/pkg/util"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -264,7 +263,7 @@ func (c *criService) localResolve(refOrID string) (imagestore.Image, error) {
 		return func(ref string) string {
 			// ref is not image id, try to resolve it locally.
 			// TODO(random-liu): Handle this error better for debugging.
-			normalized, err := util.NormalizeImageRef(ref)
+			normalized, err := reference.ParseDockerRef(ref)
 			if err != nil {
 				return ""
 			}
diff --git a/pkg/server/helpers_test.go b/pkg/server/helpers_test.go
index fb27803ee..5d33cd127 100644
--- a/pkg/server/helpers_test.go
+++ b/pkg/server/helpers_test.go
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/BurntSushi/toml"
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/runtime/linux/runctypes"
 	runcoptions "github.com/containerd/containerd/runtime/v2/runc/options"
+	"github.com/docker/distribution/reference"
 	imagedigest "github.com/opencontainers/go-digest"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
@@ -31,7 +32,6 @@ import (
 	criconfig "github.com/containerd/cri/pkg/config"
 	"github.com/containerd/cri/pkg/store"
 	imagestore "github.com/containerd/cri/pkg/store/image"
-	"github.com/containerd/cri/pkg/util"
 )
 
 // TestGetUserFromImage tests the logic of getting image uid or user name of image user.
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ func TestGetRepoDigestAndTag(t *testing.T) {
 		},
 	} {
 		t.Logf("TestCase %q", desc)
-		named, err := util.NormalizeImageRef(test.ref)
+		named, err := reference.ParseDockerRef(test.ref)
 		assert.NoError(t, err)
 		repoDigest, repoTag := getRepoDigestAndTag(named, digest, test.schema1)
 		assert.Equal(t, test.expectedRepoDigest, repoDigest)
diff --git a/pkg/server/image_pull.go b/pkg/server/image_pull.go
index 56b05e8e9..0e6c4d2ae 100644
--- a/pkg/server/image_pull.go
+++ b/pkg/server/image_pull.go
@@ -28,13 +28,12 @@ import (
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/reference"
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/remotes"
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/remotes/docker"
+	distribution "github.com/docker/distribution/reference"
 	imagespec "github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/specs-go/v1"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"golang.org/x/net/context"
 	runtime "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/kubelet/apis/cri/runtime/v1alpha2"
-
-	"github.com/containerd/cri/pkg/util"
 )
 
 // For image management:
@@ -81,7 +80,7 @@ import (
 // PullImage pulls an image with authentication config.
 func (c *criService) PullImage(ctx context.Context, r *runtime.PullImageRequest) (*runtime.PullImageResponse, error) {
 	imageRef := r.GetImage().GetImage()
-	namedRef, err := util.NormalizeImageRef(imageRef)
+	namedRef, err := distribution.ParseDockerRef(imageRef)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, errors.Wrapf(err, "failed to parse image reference %q", imageRef)
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/util/image.go b/pkg/util/image.go
index 0f471fc42..3a9883604 100644
--- a/pkg/util/image.go
+++ b/pkg/util/image.go
@@ -26,25 +26,8 @@ import (
 // and digest, the function returns digested reference, e.g. docker.io/library/busybox:latest@
 // sha256:7cc4b5aefd1d0cadf8d97d4350462ba51c694ebca145b08d7d41b41acc8db5aa will be returned as
 // docker.io/library/busybox@sha256:7cc4b5aefd1d0cadf8d97d4350462ba51c694ebca145b08d7d41b41acc8db5aa.
+//
+// Deprecated: use github.com/docker/reference.ParseDockerRef() instead
 func NormalizeImageRef(ref string) (reference.Named, error) {
-	named, err := reference.ParseNormalizedNamed(ref)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
-	}
-	if _, ok := named.(reference.NamedTagged); ok {
-		if canonical, ok := named.(reference.Canonical); ok {
-			// The reference is both tagged and digested, only
-			// return digested.
-			newNamed, err := reference.WithName(canonical.Name())
-			if err != nil {
-				return nil, err
-			}
-			newCanonical, err := reference.WithDigest(newNamed, canonical.Digest())
-			if err != nil {
-				return nil, err
-			}
-			return newCanonical, nil
-		}
-	}
-	return reference.TagNameOnly(named), nil
+	return reference.ParseDockerRef(ref)
 }