Inverness were denied their first win of the Ladbrokes Premiership season as Dundee's Kane Hemmings hit an injury-time equaliser at Dens Park.
David Raven's well taken 60th-minute strike looked liked giving John Hughes' side their long-awaited victory at the sixth attempt.
Visiting goalkeeper Owain Fon-Williams saved Greg Stewart's 83rd-minute penalty, but Hemmings struck in the dying seconds to prevent a third straight defeat for Paul Hartley's men. Inverness then had Andrea Mbuyi-Mutombo red-carded right at the end.
Much of the pre-match talk surrounded Inverness' Ryan Christie who had been the subject of a transfer bid by Celtic.
The 20-year-old still has two years of his current contract left but it has been suggested he would be loaned back to the Highland club if Celtic secured his signature.
It was the visitors who made a bright start and after just a few minutes, Mbuyi-Mutombo had a free header from David Raven's cross which went past Dundee goalkeeper Scott Bain's right-hand post.
It was a lively enough start from both sides with Inverness midfielder Greg Tansey becoming the first player to be booked by referee Andrew Dallas in 19 minutes for a late challenge on Paul McGowan.
Soon after, Caley Thistle created the a clear-cut chance to take the lead.
Iain Vigurs worked a neat one-two with Raven and finished with a right-foot shot which went just inches wide of the target.
Then, a minute later, Inverness midfielder Ross Draper was shown a yellow-card for a foul on Dundee defender Thomas Konrad.
As half-time approached, Christie had a shot blocked by Dundee centre-back James McPake before conceding a foul for following in on the same player.
Inverness were on the attack again after 43 minutes when Draper tried his luck with a shot from 25 yards which was turned round the post by Bain for a corner.
The second half started with Vigurs picking up a yellow card after 50 minutes for pulling back Greg Stewart as he prepared to advance into the visitors' final third.
Inverness took their deserved lead when a slick move down the left set up Mbuyi-Mutombo whose cross eluded the Dundee defence and Raven was on hand to curl a fine left-foot shot into Bain's far corner.
It was no more than they merited although they had goalkeeper Fon-Williams to thank for keeping them ahead two minutes later as he parried away McGowan's fierce 23-yard shot.
At the other end, Christie had a chance after 66 minutes to increase Inverness' lead when he ran through on goal, but from a tight angle his shot went wide of Bain's far post.
Dundee were not out of it though and after 74 minutes Hemmings had a half-chance inside the box but shot straight at Fon-Williams.
And they missed a golden chance to snatch a point seven minutes from time when Stewart's cross was handled inside the box by Daniel Devine.
Up stepped Stewart to hit the spot-kick but Fon-Williams dived low to his left to save to keep the visitors in front.
However, in injury-time Hemmings levelled when he rant onto Paul McGinn's long through-ball to calmly finish past Fon-Williams.
Inverness were then reduced to 10 men for the final few seconds as Mutombo was sent packing for a lunge on Nick Ross.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here