The referee can most definitely issue penalties before the game starts, and
he should if penalties are committed.  This is why the officials must be on
the ice prior to the teams arriving for warmups and stay till they have left.
The most recent time I saw this happen was the 1990 NC$$ tourney, North Dakota
at BU - a couple of players ran into each other at center ice and as it was
the first game of the series, neither wanted to give an advantage, so there
was a lot of pushing and some punches thrown.  The ref was Piotrowski from the
CCHA, and he immediately established control of the game by sending four
players (two from each side) to the box for 14 minutes, double roughs and
misconducts.
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Mike Machnik    [log in to unmask]   mikem@{beanpot,bubba}.ma30.bull.com