To quote something Greg Raymer posted on 2+2 before he became famous, "the biggest mistake you can make heads-up is to fold preflop too often."
Note that is the exact opposite of good full-table poker.
HU at the end of a tourney is a bit different from just playing HU. The following ideas are more valuable shallow-stacked at the end of a tourney.
Randomize your play, but don't fold in position preflop more than 2% of the time. Be aggressive. If you complete from SBB and he checks the flop, bet. If you flop a pair, any pair, bet. Raise in position more often than not.
OOP, you find out soon enough what kind of player you're facing. How he plays in position will help you define what his postflop actions mean.
Randomize your play. You know, there's a stupid concept newbies have in hold'em that loses them money at full tables that is absolutely the way and the light HU - ANY 2 CARDS CAN WIN. Play with that as your mantra at a full table and you'll go broke. Play with that as your mantra heads-up and you're on your way to winning (of course, you have to know how to play postflop for this to work).
HU at the end of a tourney, no player who understands that the two most relevant factors in these situations are aggression and luck is as much as a 3:2 dog to the best player on the planet. A player who does not understand it is a huge dog to any player who does.
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