The defeat leaves Palace pointless after two games coming hard on the heels of their shock loss at home at Luton Town last weekend.
But it was rough on Palace who had bounced back from the shock of falling behind to Ki-Hyeon Seol's goal after just four minutes to drag themselves level on the stroke of half-time through Jobi McAnuff.
Palace dominated in terms of goalscoring chances but found Wolves goalkeeper Michael Oakes in inspired form.
Wolves rarely threatened after Seol struck and it needed a huge slice of luck for them to earn their first win of the season.
When Carl Cort headed down an 84th minute cross from Jackie McNamara it flashed into the Palace net off the head of the luckless central defender Ward.
Before Ward's intervention, Wolves had looked set to live up to their reputation as draw specialists as they were heading for their 12th in 20 games.
The win also earned them a place in the club's record books as it extended their unbeaten run to 20 games - matching the previous best run set back in 1923-24.
Wolves had made the perfect start when Seol converted a Cort cross. It looked to be the spark that would see Wolves dominate proceedings. But all it served to do was fire up Palace.
They should have been back on levels terms well before McAnuff finally struck in the 42nd minute.
Oakes had to work overtime to protect Wolves' advantage. He denied Ben Watson and Andy Johnson while Tom Soares was guilty of a careless miss when he drove over the bar from 12 yards.
McAnuff eventually showed his team-mates the way to goal when the ball broke to him after a challenge between Wolves' centre-half Jody Craddock and Palace striker Jon Macken.
McAnuff found himself in space on the right-hand side of the area and this time Oakes was unable to save Wolves as the ball whistled past him into the bottom corner of the net.
It was a setback that Wolves struggled to come to terms with and it was Palace who continued to make all of the running in the second period.
Emmerson Boyce fired over the bar in the 48th minute before central defender Fitz Hall wasted a golden chance from a Watson corner when he failed to hit the target on the hour with a close-range header.
When Oakes again denied Johnson with a stunning one-handed save ten minutes from time Palace must have sensed it would not be their night and that was confirmed by the luckless Ward.