A draw was a fair result, but it satisfied neither team.
Exeter were desperate for the points to maintain their promotion play-off prospects and for a while it looked as if they would win.
But Northwich, rooted to the bottom of the table, were even more desperate and fought back to grab a point which slightly enhances their thin hopes of survival.
Exeter had the greater say in the first half without ever looking like scoring. Their best effort came from Les Afful, who showed great control but goalkeeper Ben Connett clutched his shot under the crossbar.
James Coppinger had emerged as the game's star player and he improved still further in the second half and on the hour created the Exeter goal.
They cut through the Northwich defence and Coppinger swept the ball powerfully into the six-yard area catching defender Mark Foran facing the wrong way and he inadvertently headed into his own net.
It was hard to take for Foran because he was the Vics matchwinner at Burton at the weekend, but within minutes he had made another error which let in Sean Devine and his shot was beaten away by Connett.
The reserve goalkeeper made another excellent stop from Glenn Cronin before the Vics equalised.
They had already threatened through a spectacular overhead shot by Peter Wright which bounced off the turf and over the crossbar.
Wright and partner Chris Ward were involved in the build-up to the equaliser, which was steered home by Steven Nicholas from 12 yards.
In a frantic finish Ward engineered a good position, but pulled his shot wide.