Both teams played out an entertaining and hard fought game with neither able to grab that all important winner. On the balance of play, United probably deserved to narrowly edge it but the Jam Tarts had their fair share of chances.
In an enterprising opening, United fired the first salvo with a fierce drive from Collin Samuel which narrowly missed but it was the visitors who opened the scoring in the fourth minute with a hooked shot from outside the box by Kevin McKenna.
Latching on to an Alan Maybury throw-in, the Canadian turned and lobbed the ball over the desperate arms of Paul Jarvie. Buoyed by this, the big striker tried his luck again ten minutes later, but his 22-yard shot flew over the bar.
As United toiled at the back, Hearts really should have extended their lead in the 16th minute. Robbie Neilson's deep cross was volleyed back across goal by McKenna but the stretching Dennis Wyness struck the ball over the bar from eight yards with the goal at his mercy.
But it was not all one way, as in the 20th minute, Samuel rued his luck when he bulleted a 12-yard shot off the base of the post. Not to be outdone the visitors then repeated the feat when McKenna rattled the woodwork from 25 yards minutes later.
It was 25 minutes with chances a plenty, end to end with Billy Dodds emulating Wyness with an identical miss in the 24th minute.
With half-time behind them, United thought they had equalised six minutes into the second period. Dodds ghosted in at the far post knocking in Chris Innes' header, but the assistant flagged at the far side.
This lifted the Terrors and they deservedly equalised in the 62nd minute through Mark Wilson. The young defender, who was not having one of his better games, stuck out a foot 18 yards out to hook the ball through a ruck of players and curl it into the net.
United were in full flow and James Grady was a whisker away when he hit a left-foot shot past the post after Grant Brebner had robbed Paul Hartley.
But the Edinburgh side were cursing in the 69th minute when sub Ramon Pereira struck the post after he took advantage of David McCracken's misplaced header.
Despite this the Tangerines continued to pressure with several near misses at successive corners including Wilson's in-swinger cleared off the line by Maybury with the keeper beaten.
And to cap it all, as the game heated up towards a climax, sub Jamie McAllister was fortunate not to be red-carded when he head-butted Brebner following a crude tackle; the referee opting to caution both players.