His late strike in this 3-3 thriller marked a successful return to Palace for Neil Warnock after a four-and-a-half year absence.
Zaha is another familiar face back with the Eagles as he rejoined for a second loan spell since they sold him to Manchester United in a £15million deal in January 2013.
The former Newcastle target was an unused substitute for Van Gaal’s United in Tuesday’s 4-0 Capital One Cup humiliation at MK Dons and was on the bench again yesterday until his dramatic introduction 20 minutes from time.
Toon winger Rolando Aarons, 18, looked set to steal the show as he came off the bench to haul the Magpies back into the game on 73 minutes before playing a key role in Mike Williamson’s 88th-minute goal.
But Zaha popped up to score deep in stoppage time to secure Palace’s first point this season.
Jason Puncheon had seemed poised to be the day’s hero.
The winger was fined £15,000 and warned about his future conduct by the FA for a string of derogatory tweets aimed at Warnock in January.
Puncheon reacted after his then-former boss – working as a pundit – said he wouldn’t have trusted the player to take the penalty he skied in Palace’s 2-0 defeat at Tottenham.
But Warnock had no complaints when Puncheon gave Palace the lead for the second time three minutes after the break.
Warnock said: “I enjoyed being back and I couldn’t ask much more of my players.
“We’ve had just two days together but a couple of cracking sessions.
“Jason and I had a very good chat on Thursday. I just said, ‘Go andplay with a smile’.
“There’s camaraderie with this lot. Tony Pulis did a fantastic job with them last season – there’s not a bad apple in the squad.
“I was awake at five this morning – at my age you have to get up and do things at five in the morning!”
Dwight Gayle, who hit a hat-trick in the 3-0 Capital One Cup win at Walsall in midweek, grabbed an opportunist opener inside the first minute.
It was Palace’s first goal against Newcastle in eight meetings in league and cup.
But Holland right-back Daryl Janmaat – a £5million close-season capture from Feyenoord – became the first Newcastle player to score in four matches this season when he levelled in the 37th minute.
Newcastle midfi elder Jack Colback – who this week received a shock call-up to the England squad – looked too eager to impress when he fired over after Remy Cabella rolled a free-kick into his path.
Palace restored their lead when Yannick Bolasie pulled the ball in from the left for Puncheon, who teed himself up for a volley that beat Tim Krul.
When Zaha came on he immediately danced down the left to force a save from Krul.
Aarons’ header in after Cabella’s left-wing corner was deflected in his direction.
And when Aarons’ chipped cross clipped a post, Williamson – sent off in the 0-0 draw at Aston Villa a week earlier – tapped in.
But Zaha’s shot went in off a post in a frantic finale.
Toon boss Alan Pardew hailed Aarons, saying: “There’s something about him. I gave Jonjo Shelvey, Mark Noble and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain debuts and I would put him in that category.“Those guys have seen it through and he has to do that now.
“He’s a player with tremendous self-belief and tremendous pace. He has a great future at this club. He’s almost forced his way into my thinking.
“As for Zaha, he’s a player we’ve talked about here and we’ve much admired him.’’
But Toon boss Alan Pardew was unhappy with referee Mike Jones.
He said: “I’m very disappointed because we should have had three points.
“When a team comes here and wastes time – they took ages with everything – and they’re 3-2 down, the referee gives seven minutes’ added time. It didn’t fit with me.’’
